Investing in OpenCRVS: recognizing civil registration as foundational to digital public infrastructure
By Christine Kim
Co-Develop is thrilled to announce a new investment in OpenCRVS, an open source software (OSS) that enables governments to establish and maintain a comprehensive record of important life events such as births, marriages, adoptions, divorces, and deaths - collectively known as Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) data.
A robust CRVS system is essential to DPI, playing a crucial role in issuing legal documents often required for enrolling in schools, receiving healthcare, conducting legal transactions, exercising inheritance rights, enabling immigration, and accessing other public and private services. Yet the current landscape of CRVS options - broadly: paper-based; homegrown digital, and proprietary solutions - often falls short of countries’ DPI needs, with challenges ranging from time delays and inaccurate / missing data, to lack of secure interoperability and vendor lock-in.
As countries continue to digitize, building secure and seamless eCRVS systems that address these challenges is becoming an increasing priority. Most tellingly, at a June Livecast following the 2023 ID4Africa Augmented General Meeting in Nairobi, representatives from Uganda, Togo, Guinea, and Namibia stressed the importance of developing a uniform and standardized approach to CRVS that falls in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
OpenCRVS, an open source, open standard eCRVS solution, is a powerful lever in enabling society-wide impact. Its ability to plug into proprietary and open source systems demonstrates its value across various use cases that are grounded in DPI, such as effective digital identity management through integrations with MOSIP and INGroupe; inclusive digital payment schemes through the G2P Connect and Digital Convergence Initiative efforts; and positive health outcomes through integration with DHIS2.
In recognition of OpenCRVS’s potential to support countries’ digital transformation and in alignment with our strategic focus on Digital Public Goods integral to DPI, Co-Develop is investing in OpenCRVS’s capacity to respond to growing interest in their product. While effective CRVS systems require much, much more than simply technology, we believe that partnering with OpenCRVS is a concrete step toward building digital infrastructure that is safe, inclusive, and equitable. We are thrilled to support the OpenCRVS team as they engage with countries across the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia Pacific in the coming months.
