Implementing Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) has been given a special importance in Bangladesh. For us, it is an opportunity to streamline and synchronize the civil registration processes being administered by different government agencies (Office of the Registrar General, Birth and Death Registration; Office of Inspector General of Registration, Law and Justice Division; Directorate General of Health Services, Heath Services Division) with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (the national vital statistics producer) and also to develop a common service platform for the people of the country. To realize this opporuntiy we adopted a ‘whole-of-government’ approach and the Cabinet Division was given the responsibility to lead the effort. It established a ‘CRVS Secretariat’ and formed a national level interministerial coordination and supervision committee i.e. 'CRVS related Steering Committee' led by the Cabinet Secretary.

Bangladesh wants to establish a robust and effetive CRVS process based on a Unique ID (UID) system and linked it with service delivery processes. Along with the six componets (birth, death, marriage, divorce, adoption and cause of death) we have also added enrolment in the educaiton system, and migration (in and out) as major components of CRVS in Bangladesh. And then to link them with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) for generation of Vital Statistics (VS) and with other services delivery processes especially the Social Protection Programs we are developing an Integrated Service Delivery Platform as part of CRVS implementation plan. We call this model as CRVS++.

Since the ‘Ministerial Conference on CRVS, 2014’ Bangladesh has progressed significantly to realize its CRVS++ model and thereby the goals set out in the ‘Regional Action Framework’. Along with the ongoing activities a Unique ID (UID) system has been developed and is being used; a separate entity i.e. Office of the Registrar General, Birth and Death Registration has been established; the existing online birth and death registration system is being modified; completed reveiw of the legal framework; developed ‘Enterprise Architecture (EA) of the CRVS++ system; introduced on pilot basis the international standard Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCoD) in 4 hospitals and Verbal Autopsy (VA) for recording of CoD for the cases where no MCCoD is available; and piloted mobile application based age verification system for marriage registration. And still there are much more to accomplish and learn from others.