Somalia rolls out digital CRVS system on foundations laid with UNICEF support

The government of Somalia has announced the launch of a system that will allow civil status events like births, deaths and marriages to be registered digitally.

This information was disclosed by the country’s Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation on the occasion of the 2025 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day on August 10.

According to the Somali National News Agency (SONNA), the new unified digital system is part of efforts by the government to streamline civil registration and take the numbers up.

The system is now functional in 19 districts across federal states and it will be eventually rolled out nationwide, the ministry says.

With the system, local authorities will be able to register births with some level of immediacy, and all the data forwarded to a central data base. It is expected to curb some of the difficulties plaguing civil registration in the Horn of Africa country.

As part of the plan to expand the system, the ministry says efforts are underway to have it integrated with other national systems such as the national digital ID system, healthcare, immigration and education.

In an interview with Biometric Update in May, the Director General of Somalia’s National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), Abdiwali Ali Abdulle, spoke about civil registration challenges, saying many Somalis do not have breeder documents like birth certificates to enable them obtain ID cards.

He said however that alternative methods of identification were accepted while authorities amplify measures to expand civil registration coverage.

The introduction of the unified digital CRVS system is seen as a key step in that direction, as Somalia advances its digital public infrastructure development engagements.

Support from UNICEF, German government

With a very low rate of civil registration currently despite a high birth rate, UNICEF says that the country is nonetheless “taking historic steps” to modernize its civil registration system.

According to a blog post, UNICEF is partnering with the Somali government, alongside Germany, to implement measures which include the strengthening of institutions, enabling system interoperability, decentralizing birth registration services, and further digitizing the system and training personnel on its usage.

The UN agency notes that the groundwork has been laid for “a full-fledged CRVS system in Somalia,” but stronger political will is needed to get things better done.

“The foundations have been laid. The tools are in place. Now is the time to finish what has been started. No child in Somalia should remain invisible – on paper or in life,” the agency says.

Article Topics

birth registration  |  civil registration  |  CRVS  |  death registration  |  digital identity  |  legal identity  |  NIRA Somalia  |  SDG 16.9  |  Somalia  |  UNICEF