Birth and Death Registration as the Anchor for Digital Public Infrastructure and Access to Services 

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Digital transformation offers unprecedented opportunities to improve public service delivery, expand financial inclusion, and strengthen governance through data-driven decision-making. To realize this potential, it is critical for each person to be able to prove their identity. Yet an estimated 850 million people lack official proof of identity, and about 150 million children have no birth certificate—the primary means by which legal identity is first established. 

Without identity documents, people are unable to obtain the digital identity needed for e-government and online private sector services. This exclusion disproportionately affects vulnerable people and groups, creating barriers to accessing essential services and participating in increasingly digital societies. Without a legal identity anchored in civil registration, many people remain invisible to government systems and unable to claim their rights, or to access critical health, education and social protection services. 

Civil registration can then be linked to digital public infrastructure (DPI)—the foundational, shared digital building blocks designed for the public benefit and supporting equitable access to public and private services across society. This linkage can build trust in personal data and increase government efficiency by collecting data once and using it many times.

We highlight how countries are demonstrating how integrating civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems into DPI can close equity gaps and transform public service delivery. By positioning birth and death registration as the foundational anchor for DPI, these countries have enabled their residents to establish legal and digital identities from birth, enabling seamless access to services over their lifetimes. 

The integration of CRVS with DPI delivers four core benefits that fundamentally improve how governments serve their populations. 

• Expanding access to services by establishing legally and digitally verifiable identities from birth.
• Building a trusted ecosystem by basing digital ID systems on verified civil registration data, preventing waste and fraud.
• Enabling efficient distribution by collecting data once and using it across multiple services.
• Providing data for policymaking, offering governments reliable vital statistics for evidence-based planning and resource allocation across health, education and social protection sectors.

Success in linking CRVS to DPI requires attention to five critical enabling factors: 

• Fostering support and champions at the highest levels through political commitment and cross-ministerial coordination 
• Integrating a DPI approach within CRVS systems by prioritizing interoperability and data exchange standards, and fostering collaboration across ministries and sectors
• Simultaneously digitalizing CRVS and interoperability with ID systems to create mutual and synergistic benefits and improve completeness
• Streamlining registration processes before digitalizing them, for example, by increased collaboration with the health sector to make civil registration active 
• Dedicating resources to CRVS digitalization as strategic investment rather than a bureaucratic expense

Challenges persist, such as interoperability gaps with legacy systems, digital literacy barriers, cybersecurity risks, data quality concerns, and the need for sustainable financing. However, the demonstrated impacts on service access, trust, efficiency and equity make clear that linking birth and death registration to DPI is not merely a technical upgrade but a fundamental enabler of inclusive development and digital transformation.