Indicator 16.9.1 Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority, by age

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Target 16.9: By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.

16.9.1. Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority.

November 2021

None

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Johnstone Galande

Department of Demography and Social Statistics

Senior Demographer

+256 782 789787

P.O Box 7186, Kampala

galandej1@gmail.com

Definition:

Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority.

Concepts:

Birth registration:

Birth registration is defined as ‘the continuous, permanent and universal recording, within the civil registry, of the occurrence and characteristics of births in accordance with the legal requirements of a country’. Birth certificate: A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term ‘birth certificate’ can refer either to the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth, or to a certified copy or representation of the registration of that birth, depending on the practices of the country issuing the certificate.

Civil authority:

Official authorized to register the occurrence of a vital event and to record the required details.

Proportion

None

The National Governance Peace and Security Survey 2017

The Uganda Demography and Health Survey (UDHS)

The 2016 UDHS underwent several stages before production and sharing of the final findings. These included: survey planning, consultative user needs assessment meetings, survey and sampling design, questionnaire development, pretesting and finalization of questionnaires, recruitment and training of field staff, field data collection and capture, data processing, management, checking and analysis; report writing and production. At each stage, the survey conformed to international best practices in survey implementation. In addition, all relevant international standards have been followed in generation of the indicator.

Sample Design:

The 2016 UDHS sample was designed to allow generation of separate estimates at the national level, for urban and rural areas and for the 15 sub-regions of Uganda. At the time of the survey, there were 129 functional districts. A two-stage stratified sampling design was used. At the first stage, EAs were grouped by districts of similar socio-economic characteristics and by rural-urban location. The EAs were then drawn using Probability Proportional to Size. At the second stage, households which are the ultimate sampling units were drawn using Systematic Random Sampling.

In the first stage, 697 EAs were selected from the 2014 Uganda National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) list which constituted the Sampling Frame. 162 EAs in urban areas and 535 in rural areas. The EAs were then grouped into 15 sub regions, taking into consideration the standard errors required for estimation of poverty indicators at sub-regions and the rural-urban domains.

Questionnaire:

Four questionnaires were used in the 2016 UDHS: the Household Questionnaire, the Woman’s Questionnaire, the Man’s Questionnaire, and the Biomarker Questionnaire. The questionnaires, based on the DHS Program’s model questionnaires, were adapted to reflect the population and health issues relevant to Uganda. In addition, information on the survey fieldworkers was collected through a self-administered Fieldworker Questionnaire

Training and field work:

UBOS recruited and trained a total of 173 fieldworkers (108 women and 65 men) to serve as supervisors,

CAPI managers, interviewers, health technicians, and reserve interviewers for the main fieldwork. Health Technicians were trained separately from interviewers. The training was conducted in a period of 30 days. The main approach of the training comprised instructions in relation to interviewing techniques and field procedures, a detailed review of the data collection modules, tests and practice using hand-held Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) devices. The training also included classroom mock interviews and field practice in selected EAs outside of the main survey sample. Team supervisors were further trained in data quality control procedures and coordination of fieldwork activities.

Prior to the main fieldwork, the data collection module were pretested to ensure that the questions were clear, flow ing and easily understood by the respondents

Data collection:

Data collection was conducted by 21 field teams, each consisting of one team leader, one field data Manager, three female interviewers, one male interviewer, one health technician, and one driver. The health technicians were responsible for anthropometric measurements, blood sample collection for Hemoglobin and malaria testing, and DBS specimen collection for vitamin A testing.

The UDHS 2016, interviewers used tables to record all questionnaire responses during the interviews. The tablets were equipped with Bluetooth technology to enable remote electronic transfer of files, such as assignments from the team supervisor to the interviewers, individual questionnaires among survey team members, and completed questionnaires from interviewers to team supervisors.

The field supervisors transferred data to the central data processing office via IFSS. Senior staff from the Makerere University School of Public Health, the Ministry of Health, and UBOS and a survey technical specialist from The DHS Program coordinated and supervised fieldwork activities. Data collection took place over a 6-month period from 20 June 2016 through 16 December 2016.

The CAPI Application used in the 2016 UDHS was developed by the DHS Program with the mobile version of CSPro. The CSPro software was developed jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau, Serpro S.A., and The DHS Program.

every 5 years

2023

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Act, 1998 provides for the development and maintenance of a National Statistical System (NSS) to ensure collection, analysis and publication of integrated, relevant, reliable and timely statistical information. It established the Bureau as the coordinating, monitoring and supervisory body for the National Statistical System.

Registering children at birth is the first step in securing their recognition before the law, safeguarding their rights, and ensuring that any violation of these rights does not go unnoticed.

Children without official identification documents may be denied health care or education. Later in life, the lack of such documentation can mean that a child may enter into marriage or the labor market, or be conscripted into the armed forces, before the legal age. In adulthood, birth certificates may be required to obtain social assistance or a job in the formal sector, to buy or prove the right to inherit property, to vote and to obtain a passport.

Children’s right to a name and nationality is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) under Article 7.

The number of children who have acquired their right to a legal identity is collected mainly through the National Population Census, civil registration systems and UDHS. The Uganda Registration Services Bureau compiles vital statistics that are used to compare the estimated total number of births in Uganda with the absolute number of registered births during a given period from the survey. However, the systematic recording of births in Uganda remains a serious challenge. In the absence of reliable administrative data, National surveys have become a key source of data to monitor levels and trends in birth registration.

Number of children under age of five whose births have been reported as being registered with the relevant national civil authorities divided by the total number of children under the age of five in the population multiplied by 100.

A wide consultative process is undertaken to compile, assess and validate data on birth registration. The consultation process solicited feedback directly from other government agencies responsible for birth registration. Validation of the birth registration status was established by one’s ability to show the actual certificate owned.

Substantial differences can exist between CRVS coverage and birth registration levels as captured by household surveys. The differences are primarily because data from CRVS typically refer to the percentage of all births that have been registered (often within a specific timeframe) whereas household surveys often represent the percentage of children under age five whose births are registered. The latter (the level of registration among children under 5) is specified in the SDG indicator.

The survey implementation is overseen by a Steering Committee which is constituted using a multi sectorial approach.

• The survey report is reviewed by an experienced team at Management level who are in most cases Directors or Heads of departments and key stakeholders from Makerere School of Public Health, Molecular Laboratory of Makerere University School of Health Sciences, Ministry of Health and later reviewed by consultants  

The 2016 UDHS underwent several stages before production and sharing of the final findings.  During the Survey implementation.

1. Consultative user needs assessment meetings are held with all key stakeholders.
2. ICF International provided consultants to oversee the 2016 UDHS implementation.
3. The survey and sampling design were generated using scientific methods as recommended by the Census and Survey Rules and Regulations.
4. The questionnaires were developed for different categories of the Target respondents; (Man’s Questionnaire, Woman’s questionnaire, Biomarker questionnaire and Field worker questionnaire. This was followed by a pretest which helps to establish the relevancy and adequacy of the questions to be used.
5. Senior Supervision is conducted during data collection to ensure that quality data is collected.
6. Field data editing, Secondary data cleaning and coding is undertaken before analysis and report writing

Before dissemination, the report is reviewed and quality assured by a professional team of the NSS. Quality Control is addressed at all levels during Survey implementation.

Data availability:

Data available every 5 years

Time series:

2001, 2006, 2011, 2016

Disaggregation:

By sex, National

Not Applicable

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), 2021. www.ubopublication.or.ug.