LESOTHO
Civil Registration & Vital
statistics System
Prepared
by
M. Likoti & M. Makoa
Introduction
Vital events are regulated under the following
Legal frameworks;
Births and death Act 1973
Marriage Act 1974
Statistics Act 2001
Local Government Act 1997
Policies – orphaned and vulnerable children 2006
UN Convention on the rights of the child
The MDGs
The African charter on the rights of the child
Partnerships & linkages
Implementing & supporting institutions are;
Ministry of Local Government (Department
of Births and deaths)
Ministry of Finance and development
Planning ( Bureau of Statistics)
Ministry of Health & Social Welfare (
Department of Social Welfare)
Other agencies (Development partners &
private sectors)
Background
Civil registration is coordinated in the Office of
Registrar of births and deaths.
Production of Vital statistics report is the
responsibility of DLSS division at BOS.
Information on the occurrence of births , deaths,
marriages and divorces, as well as relevant
characteristics of the events and of the persons
concerned is collected from the districts.
 The information is manually entered, compiled,
analyzed, and disseminated in a statistical form by the
BOS.
Procedure
Early registration- event reported
within a year of occurrence ( no fees
paid)
Late registration – event reported
after a year of occurrence (penalty
fee of M4.00)
Orphan registration- 0 – 18 years
Procedure cont’
Report an event to the village Chief
where notification forms will be filled
in triplicate.
The forms should be transmitted to
the DA’s office for authorization and
issuance of certificate.
Orphan are registered with the
village chief or community councilor
Information derived from the
forms
BIRTHS
Name, District, village,
ward, sex, date of
birth & where it
occurred, occupation
and nationality of the
father, age of the
mother, number of
children ever born and
their survival status
etc
DEATHS
Name, District,
village,
ward, sex, date of
death, occupation
and nationality of
the father, age at
death and cause of
death etc.
Information derived from the
forms cont’
Marriages
Name of parties,
District of
solemnization, age sex
& marital status of the
bride and groom, date
of solemnization, type
of marriage and
marriage banns
Divorces
Name of parties, Age,
sex, educational level,
place of residence &
occupation of the
plaintiff & defendant,
type, date & duration
of marriage, date
when divorce was
granted & reasons for
divorce
Information derived from the
forms cont’
Orphans & vulnerable children
District, village, Age, sex, educational and
residential status of the child, survival
status of parents and socio-economic
background characteristics of the
parents.
Current status
 The MoLGC is the custodian of civil
registration system.
 BOS collects, compiles, analyses and
disseminates statistics on births and
deaths only, but have just started
collecting information on marriages &
divorces.
 DSW is the custodian of orphaned and
vulnerable children registration.
How the forms reach the BOS
The forms are filled in triplicate by the
Chiefs in the villages.
The forms are then sent to the District
Administrator’s (DA’s) in the district for
authorization, production and issuance of
certificates and the chief remains with one
form.
One of the forms from the DA’s office is
sent to the BOS for manual data entry.
Challenges
Accessibility-Services are provided in the
administrative centres only.
Some forms reach the DA’s office only when the
chief has some official matter to attend to at the
DA’s office.
The BOS method of retrieval of the forms not
systematic. Focus mainly on agric statistics
Codes to be imputed for causes of death remains a
big challenge.
Under coverage-Reporting rate still very low, hence
information can hardly be used for population
estimates.
Challenges cont’
Understaffed offices both at
headquarters and district offices.
Non reporting on early registration
Inadequate financial resources.
Dependence on ITPD division for
production of tables also hinders
progress
Achievements
Computerized system as of 2003.
Decentralized services as of 2000.
FUTURE PLANS
To develop a comprehensive partnership strategy
of improving reporting of these vital events.
Start analyzing information on marriages and
divorces.
Start collecting information on OVC’s.
Publish the reports on a yearly basis.
Strengthen advocacy and mobilization
Capacity building of statisticians Chiefs and
community councilors
Enactment of the CPW Bill
Thank You for your Attention !!!
P.O Box 455
Maseru. 100
00266-22323852 (BOS)
00266-22315004(MOLGC)
E-mail : demography@bos.gov.ls
mathusolikoti@yahoo.com
Web site: www.bos.gov.ls