27/06/2024
EU AND NAO PARTICIPATE IN THE FINAL BOARD MEETING FOR THE PROJECT: IT AND PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT TO CIVIL REGISTRATION IN SIERRA LEONE
Today, 27th July at the Conference Room of the new National Civil Registration Authority Headquarters in Brookfield, the European Delegation in Sierra Leone together with the National Authorising Office, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Ministry of Finance, National Civil Registration Authority and UNOPS hold their final project board meeting for “IT and physical infrastructure support to civil registration in Sierra Leone”, a component that supports the governance sector in Sierra Leone funded by the EU.
In 2017, the European Union committed 11,000,000 EUR to support the establishment of an effective Civil Registration system as a key priority under the EU programme to support democracy and governance in Sierra Leone. Under a Financing Agreement for support to the governance sector in Sierra Leone that was signed on 19th October 2017 between the European Union and the Government of Sierra Leone.
The EU and the Government of Sierra Leone are committed to supporting the establishment of an integrated, continuous and permanent national civil registration, vital statistics and identity registry system in line with the 2014 National Civil Registration reform policy and 2016 NCRA Act.
In preparation for the final handing over in September 2024, the project board decided to hold its final board meeting at the new NCRA Headquarter Conference Room where the project way forward and sustainability of the PDC were discussed.
Financed by the Government of Sierra Leone and the European Union and implemented by UNOPS, the primary data Centre has been completed, the online CRVS system that will facilitate the vital events registration and generation of proper population statistics is now in the final implementation phase and will be operational at the end of July 2024, and final handing over to Government of Sierra Leone will take place in September 2024.
The project established a Primary Data Centre (PDC) and also developed a customized software for the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (CRVS) for Sierra Leone that will increase Sierra Leone’s current births and deaths registration rate through citizens’ access to civil register service centres and document extracts, ensure priority institutions have continuous, real-time, synchronized access privilege to and notification from the national database and have capacity to extract vital statistics and high quality connectivity between priority agency databases and central civil registry database
The project board discussed challenges, gaps, future plans and sustainability of the project. It is worth noting that a solid foundation for a CRVS system has been built, and its integration with other priority Ministries, Departments and Agencies databases will be a game changer for Sierra Leone’s development aspirations that supports a stronger and better governance architecture for citizens.
At the National Authorising Office (NAO), under the supervision of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development we continue to facilitate GOSL-EU development cooperation for the benefit of Sierra Leone.
