Completeness and coverage of CRVS in Senegal: analyzing census data to

identify barriers to death registration

Ibrahima DIOUF1, Cheikh Tidiane NDIAYE2

1
Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)
2
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Extended abstract
Background
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda recognized the interest of deaths registration for
development planning, monitoring and evaluation. Despite this fact, many low and middle-income
countries do not have a well-functioning civil registration system. Many deaths that occur in these
countries are never registered and are not counted in vital statistics. There are few incentives and
benefits linked to death registration in countries where life insurance is virtually inexistent, and
places of burial largely unrestricted.

In this context, CRVS is becoming a development issue for international agenda and many African
countries. The United Nations System Task Team on the post-2015 UN agenda recognizes that
“reliable and comprehensive civil registration systems are a basic component of good
governance and are essential for the production of vital statistics and of many health and
population indicators.(…) A focused program of support to improve these statistics will be
essential to strengthening basic statistics for post-2015 indicators in many fields.”1 According to
the World Health Organization2, a country should have more than 80 % of births and deaths
registered for its data to be considered complete and reliable. In Sub-Saharan Africa, often less than
50% of deaths are reported in official records, with only few exceptions (e.g. South Africa) (Error!
Reference source not found.).

In Senegal, the CRVS system remains the “Achilles heel” of a national statistics system largely based
on surveys and censuses. Census results show that in 2013, 65.2%3 of deaths were not registered.
There has been little progress since the 2002 census, when 29.6% of all deaths were registered.
However, marked variations exist in the death registration coverage across regions. For example, in
Dakar, the capital city, 88% of deaths are registered while national death registration coverage is
around 30% in 2013. This low coverage contrasts with legislative and administrative efforts
implemented since the independence.

The civil registration system was initiated in Senegal during the colonial period. But its generalization
to the whole country is most recent (1960). The obligation to report deaths to civil registration
authorities is specified by the article 67 of the family law: “all deaths must be notified to the registrar
within one month”. Notification should be done by the deceased’s parent or any other person with
sufficient information on his civil status. In addition, there are specific procedures to notify the death
beyond the regular timeframe.

1
UNTT report on the post 2015 Development Agenda, Statistics and Indicators for the post-2015 Development
Agenda, para xli,
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1997UNTT_MonitoringReport_WEB.pdf
2
http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/pima/civil-registration-and-vital-statistics
3
ANSD, Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat, de l’Agriculture et de l’Elevage de 2013
The diagnostic of CRVS system in Senegal highlights institutional, organizational, and substantives
issues that still hinder deaths registration. Consequently, the challenge of a complete and reliable
deaths registration can be tackled only by acknowledging the influence of both institutional and
community factors. Literature review on civil registration and vital statistics determinants show that
barriers to death registration are numerous and complex. Demographic, economic, social and
cultural factors play an important role on the decision of death notification. These factors are
situated at the individual, family and community level.

This paper aims to explore individual and community factors that influence death registration in
Senegal.

Data and methods

Individual-level data were extracted from the 2013 census and the report of the diagnostic study on
Senegalese civil registration system. The study concerns only deaths which occurred within 12
months preceding the census and reported in the census questionnaire by the head of the
household.

Independent variables were classified into two categories, namely individual level and community
level. Individual level include the deceased’s characteristics and those relative to the household.
Variables related to the community level cover information about the place of residence (region) and
the availability of civil registration services.

Two types of analysis were performed: a descriptive analysis (chi-square tests) to measure the
association between independent variable and outcome; an in-depth analysis based on multilevel
modeling.

Results
A total of 88632 deaths occurred in the 12 months preceding the census of 2013. Among them 63%
were observed in rural areas. Pronounced regional disparities exist on death coverage. In Dakar, 9 in
10 deaths are notified to the registrar whereas the death registration coverage is less than 1 in 10 in
Kaffrine, close to the border with the Gambia.
Map 1: proportion of recent deaths registered by region, Senegal, population and housing census, 2013
At the individual level, unsurprisingly, male deaths are more frequently registered than female
deaths (respectively 32.2% and 27.5%). Likewise, analysis presented in Table 1 shows a clear trend
with higher death registration coverage among older adults. When considering the characteristics of
the head of the household, low educational level is associated with a low percentage of death
registration. It also appears that female-headed households and those headed by elders are more
likely to register deaths. Deaths are also more frequently registered in urban areas because of the
need to obtain a burial permit or to have documentation for heritage or pension. In addition,
registration is more frequent when the household head is more educated (25% of deaths were
registered when the household head had no diploma, 57% of deaths were registered when he or she
had completed primary education, and 62% of deaths were registered when he or she had
completed secondary education).

The analysis of deaths registration coverage requires a consideration of the availability of registration
offices. However, quite surpassingly, incorporating data from the diagnostic study indicates that the
availability of registration offices does not affect the probability of registering a death. However, the
availability of offices is captured here only through the number of offices in the region. Others
parameters have to be taken into account (including distance to the household, road conditions,
means of transport and equipment of these offices).

Following this analysis, it appears that the low coverage of death registration in Senegal should be
addressed while considering multiple factors. Beyond simple constraints in terms of availability of
registration offices, sociocultural realities can create bottlenecks for any program that aims to
achieve a completeness of civil registration.

Table 1: Odds ratio of death registration

Variables Odds Ratio Std. Err. z P>|z| [95% Conf. Interval]

Sex of the deceased
Male (Ref.)
Female 0,74 0,02 -14,73 0,00 0,71 0,77
Age of the deceased
18-59 (Réf.)
00- 05 0,39 0,01 -31,55 0,00 0,37 0,41
05-17 0,59 0,02 -13,03 0,00 0,54 0,64
60 and over 0,84 0,02 -7,36 0,00 0,80 0,88
Place of residence
Rural (Ref.)
Urban 4,69 0,11 68,53 0,00 4,49 4,90
Region of residence
Centre: Kaolack Fatick Kaffrine Diourbel (Réf.)
Ouest : Dakar Thiès 6,80 4,67 2,79 0,01 1,77 26,13
Sud : Ziguinchor Sédhiou Kolda 0,93 0,34 -0,21 0,84 0,45 1,92
Nord : Louga Saint-Louis Matam 1,48 0,75 0,78 0,44 0,55 3,97
Sud-Est : Kédougou Tambacounda 1,50 0,85 0,71 0,48 0,49 4,56
Ethnic group (head of household)
Wolof and similar groups (Réf.)
 Pulaar and similar groups 0,78 0,02 -8,55 0,00 0,73 0,82
Serer and similar groups 1,20 0,04 5,54 0,00 1,13 1,28
Other 0,99 0,03 -0,24 0,81 0,93 1,06
Sex of the household head
Male (Ref.)
Female 1,55 0,04 18,46 0,00 1,48 1,62
Age of the household head
Less than 30
30-59 0,79 0,04 -4,99 0,00 0,72 0,87
60 + 1,21 0,03 8,41 0,00 1,16 1,27
Educational attainment
Not educated (Réf.)
Certificate 2,33 0,08 23,11 0,00 2,17 2,50
Licence 2,82 0,14 21,35 0,00 2,57 3,11
Bachelor and over 3,85 0,23 22,67 0,00 3,42 4,32
Availability of registration offices
Rank 1-4 (Réf.)
Rank 5-9 1,56 0,95 0,74 0,46 0,48 5,14
Rank 10-14 1,71 0,77 1,19 0,24 0,71 4,12
_Intercept 0,10 0,06 -3,81 0,00 0,03 0,33

References

ANSD, 2007. « Diagnostic de l’Etat civil au Sénégal et relance des activités d’exploitation des
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l’Agriculture et de l’Elevage (RGPHAE) de 2013, 417 p.

MATHERS, Colin D. et al. (2005) counting the dead and what they died from: an assessment of the
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UNTT report on the post 2015 Development Agenda (2013), Statistics and Indicators for the post-
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