Jaap van der Straaten- MA Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam & MBA Simon School University of Rochester NY
- CEO at Civil Registration Centre for Development (CRC4D)
Jaap van der Straaten
- MA Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam & MBA Simon School University of Rochester NY
- CEO at Civil Registration Centre for Development (CRC4D)
Identity management consultant UNICEF Innocenti.
All-time top 2% (downloads) author at Elsevier's SSRN
About
83
Publications
35,836
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Introduction
Jaap van der Straaten is CEO at the Civil Registration Centre for Development (CRC4D), The Netherlands. CRC4D has conducted consultancies in E. Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, M. East & M. America. Cf. also www.crc4d.com. Previously he was Head of International Grants Management at Plan International HQ. He developed Plan's birth registration advocacy and projects (starting in Asia), and acted as a point- and spokesperson for birth registration for Plan. Cf. also his LinkedIn profile.
Current institution
Civil Registration Centre for Development (CRC4D)
Current position
- CEO
Publications
Publications (83)
Cf. also the author's more recent: Uganda's Sine Qua Non National ID. Without Which, Not URL: https://tinyurl.com/3rz9hpky.
The author's draft for the Uganda Identification for Development Diagnostic provided a holistic description and analysis of Uganda's civil registration and identification system. Uganda integrated its previously separate opera...
The South Africa Identification of Development Case Study offers an example of good identity management practice, especially for African countries. The (original text of the) case study was peer-reviewed within the World Bank and by Dr. Keith Breckenridge at the University of the Witwatersrand, WITS Institute for Social and Economic Research, South...
Using "Download" will download the main text. The second public file provides an erratum and addendum. The publication has a DOI: DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3742736, associated with a 'double' of this publication also published by ResearchGate, cf. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349282545_Identification_for_Development_It_Is_Not_'Inclusive_and_Tru...
"Uganda's sine qua non national ID. Without which, not" paper explains why Uganda's national ID has failed to be inclusive, and is becoming even less inclusive over time. Because of the ID leaving out the most vulnerable in Uganda, civil society organisations lodged a court case in 2022.
In circles of identity management scholars and practitioners the general consensus is that the region of northern Europe provides a good practice example. The region has achieved birth- and death registration completeness. With regards to national IDs, which are “all the rage” in much of the world, the region is laid back. Out of the eighteen count...
In a draft of another paper we have estimated that the before last ID4D Global Dataset’s estimate of 987 mn people without proof of legal identity as of 2018 could be 100 to 180 mn too high. This is because the birth registration rate of children and youth between the age of five and seventeen is assumed equal to that of under five years of age chi...
Late 2022 the World Bank published a new estimate of the number of people in the world without proof of legal identity: 850 million. In the meantime, this estimate has gone viral, as is the contention that, thus, there has been a reduction of 150 mn since the previous estimate of 2018 (987 mn). The importance of the estimation derives from ‘Sustain...
This paper provides an analysis of Tanzania's UNICEF- and Canada-supported Simplified Birth Registration System (SBRS)-project. The project was launched in 2013 and aimed to achieve birth registration completeness of 80 percent by 2016. Instead, by 2022, we estimate that project-attributed birth certification has been just over 30%. Assessment and...
Drawing inspiration from India’s Aadhaar system, the World Bank is promoting a dangerous digital ID model in the name of providing “a legal identity for all.” But rather than providing a model, Aadhaar is merely a mirage—an illusion of inclusiveness, accuracy, and universal identity.
This paper interrogates the latest available data on birth registration completeness which are essential to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (16.9.1) goal for a legal identity for all. In the process we look at data sources, methodological aspects, and data veracity.
Review (and rebuke) of articles by 1/ Phillips, Adair and Lopez (2018), and 2/Adair and Lopez (2021) that ask whether present birth registration completeness estimation is useful and reliable, and contend it is not and overestimates birth registration completeness by a wide margin. This
paper is an in-depth review of the two papers and proves the a...
This diagnostic of the identity management system of the Central African Republic was drafted in 2017 for the World Bank, for a country that is one of the poorest in the world and is ridden by civil strife. This (main) author was, because of the security situation, advised not to travel to the country for stakeholder debriefing and feedback. He was...
"Plutocratic State" provides a view of the present state of identity management in Ghana. It is "twinned" to a reassessment of a project ("m-birth") for the application of the mobile phone to civil registration, cf. the "Mobile Phonicide" paper, cf. https://tinyurl.com/2p83utus. Plutocratic State" concludes that identity management covering civil r...
The paper provides a reassessment of a mobile phone project, "m-birth", earlier evaluated, and concludes the project was oversold and underdelivered. Serious is the disappointing quality of the earlier evaluation, and, even more so, the apparent lackadaisical attitude of aid organizations towards the importance of evaluation. In a "twin paper" on i...
Marble management and otherwordly people provides an updated version of a March 2018 contribution to the Bhalisa Listserve (of which the author is a co-founder) on Zimbabwe's transition from the Robert Mugabe era to the post-Mugabe era, and the elections of July 2018. The promised "new Zimbabwe" is still very much the "old Zimbabwe."
ABSTRACT
Civil registration in developing countries is only slowly improving, and least so in Sub-Saharan Africa. An important reason why this is the case has been identified across countries: the problematic and costly access for the public to civil registration services. When early in the 2010s mobile phone use became ubiquitous and connectivity...
The days that one could belong in their country without having a legal identity to actually be(long) legally in that country seem well behind all of us, except for minorities that have no way to go any other place than, perhaps, a refugee camp, or underground. “Leaving no one behind”—the motto of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda—is a hollow...
Abstract.
Over the past 5 to 7 years identity management has seen a dramatic change from people-centered and rights-driven civil registration to the introduction of mostly service-focused digital and biometric national IDs. IDs are, outside of the OECD countries, largely driven by the ID-industry and meant to serve public and private services and...
This note is a placeholder for a more elaborate critique, to be published shortly, of the 'Principles on Identification', a World Bank publication (2017) 'facilitated' by the bank and the Center for Global Development. A new consultation has been launched this year with the apparent goal to obtain more buy-in for the principles which make a mockery...
Over the past two decades UNICEF has been the most visible advocate of birth registration globally. In 2015 the world community launched the Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes targets to achieve a legal identity for all, including birth registration, and targets to achieve universal birth registration (targets 16.9, and 17.19.2(b) which...
Abstract
Identity-management and citizen scoring in Ghana, Rwanda, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and China introduces a new perspective on identity management and what it is used for, with the application of ‘citizen scoring’, borrowed from the Chinese social credit system, to the field of identity management. Five countries in Africa are put under a—s...
The 'Constitutional Conduct Group' of India is a forum of former government officials who have written open letters commenting on the policies of the Narendra Modi administration. On the 10th of January 2020 the group published an open letter on the burning issue of government policy with regards to identity management: Citizenship Amendment Act, N...
Towards the end of 2019 a remarkable publication on identification systems in Africa was published in The Economist. The article contained a, for The Economist, unusual number of errors and spurious claims, but also was so specific that its provenance and genesis were suspect. In an underhand, indirect way the article held the Indian Aadhaar system...
This short paper provides a critical broad-brush review of the draft of a new handbook for civil registrars developed by the United Nations Statistics Division-the handbook on 'Communication for Development' replacing a 1998 handbook,. The current process of renewing tools for registrars lacks imagination, realism and expertise of the needs in the...
This paper describes the history of one hundred years of identification in Kenya, from the first colonial 'kipande' to the most recent Huduma Namba identification system. In Kenya 'the more things have changed, the more things have remained the same'.
Civil registration practice usually requires records to be kept for a very long time, or even in perpetuity. Digitisation has raised the matter of the (non-)longevity of digital records because of frequent, ongoing changes in hard-and software. This has not been on the radar of the enthusiasts of digital ID. It is not-for example-addressed in the W...
Confusion about the sex ratio in India, a hot-button issue, has led to a lot of publicity while the data that became available are for the 'sex ratio at birth' based on data on registered births. That includes late registration of birth, which older people need to do when they want to avail of a passport that allows travel and acceptance of work ab...
Uganda's new national ID (2014/15) is issued by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). NIRA follows a project approach to its work, perhaps forced to do so by its budgetary situation. The project approach is not a sustainable approach to NIRA's work in civil registration and national ID.
Democracy is undergoing a stress test across the world. There is a reversal of a positive trend, especially significant since the end of the Cold War, of an expansion of democracy and the adoption in an increasing number of countries. Freedom House puts the trend reversal in 2005. The reversal is arguably most clearly visible in Africa. Elections a...
This article discusses present confusion in India about the (child) sex ratio, which has dropped over the 2014-2016 period, i.e. during the first years of the Modi administration. Rather than being evidence that there is an increase in 'son preference' and discrimination of females, the increase may indicate an increase in late registration of male...
This paper looks at some of current terminology used in identity management, as well as the hyperbole that is part of it. The merits, and demerits, of 'Good Digital ID' are discussed, and the paper compares the good practice case of South Africa with identity management in Australia and India. In the process the paper illustrates the issues that pl...
Translation of an article from the Dutch original text (with introduction) that appeared in 'De Groene Amsterdammer'. The article chronicles the journey of one of The Netherlands richest persons who made his name and fortune in the world of entertainment production, television, and subsequently in social media, invented and sold across the world th...
The presentation was used for a half-day of capacity-building of staff (field and Europe-based) in matters of civil registration and identification, with the emphasis on Africa. The presentation encompasses an inventory of the scale of under-registration and under-coverage, cost of overcoming the problem and the strategy to be used to address the p...
Currently (2019) the U.S. Administration has carried out a policy of the separation of (thousands of) refugee children from their parents. Across the Pacific thousands of Uighur children are forcibly removed from their Islam parents. Millions (about 4 million) of people in the state of Assam in India are entered into a foreigner database; including...
The Zambia 'ID4D Diagnostic' provides a holistic description and analysis of civil registration and identification systems of the country. The report was peer-reviewed within the World Bank and reviewed and approved for publication by the Government of Zambia. Zambia provides a distinct case as it has a low-tech national ID instantaneously issued i...
World Bank Blogpost, written with Mariana Dahan, then in charge of Identification for Development (ID4D) World Bank
[For a more up-to-date paper on birth registration completeness measurement cf.: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359157696_Legal_identity_for_all_or_not_On_the_measurement_of_birth_registration_completeness.]
One of the remaining tasks in preparation of the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda is the selection and specification of indicator...
(>100 downloads at Academia).
After half a century of stagnation, civil registration in Africa has shown hesitant signs of progress since the turn of the century. Yet, there are still countries where registration rates have declined, which is uncommon in any other part of the world. Birth registration in Africa still covers less than one in two bir...
The Unequal at Birth publication was produced for UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office. The report zoomed in on inequities in birth registration coverage within and between countries in the region.
This presentation was delivered by Cornelius Williams (Head of Child Protection of UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa) at the Identity Management conference held in Seoul, South Korea, September 2014, organised with support from the Government of South Korea and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Fragile civil registration systems and hesitant civil registration improvement in Africa have begun to be disrupted by increased investment in relatively expensive national ID systems and biometric voter registration. ID-industry, donors and some in the academia push this as a panacea without appreciating the foundational importance of civil regist...
Prior to the consultancy UNICEF and Plan International had supported the Ministry of Health in improving birth registration with the result that Sierra Leone climbed to the top performers in ECOWAS (better than countries such as Ghana). Since then legal and organisational changes have meant major change in the civil registration and identification...
This report focusses on the identification of possibilities for improvement in civil registration, and especially birth registration coverage improvement. The report was instrumental in obtaining European Union support.
This (successful) grant proposal was put together by UNICEF Tanzania and RITA staff, with support from Jaap van der Straaten. The project proposal was based on pilot work already conducted and assessed for scale-up feasibility. Health sector staff have been given an important role in the birth registration process. While in the past 4-5 years the b...
A Passport to Protection. A Guide to Birth Registration Programming is a guide/handbook for UNICEF staff designing and implementing or supervising projects to improve birth- and civil registration. The Passport to Protection publication was issued together with UNICEF's Every Child's Birthright. Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration, the firs...
This report provides an analysis of the civil registration and identification landscape in Haiti, following the major earthquake in January 2010, and policy recommendations for Plan International which commissioned the study, for UNICEF with which Plan commonly collaborates when it concerns civil (birth) registration program matters, and for govern...
This report commissioned by UNICEF Yemen covers the status of civil registration and identification in Yemen, just before hostilities in the country went from bad to worse. At the time all factions were brought together in Sana'a for dialogue to try and attempt to reach peace. In that context it was appropriate for UNICEF to be prepared for a drive...
UNICEF provided financial support to develop special assessments of the status of civil registration in a number of African countries for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. This technical report about promising practices was distributed at the 2nd Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held in Durban, Sou...
This civil registration reform report was put together by the end of two years of engagement of the government of Cameroon on behalf of UNICEF. Cameroon's civil registration coverage has shown an abysmal development. The underlying reason is the lack of accountability within a context of too many actors involved with unclearly defined mandates. The...
This presentation to stakeholders in the civil registration domain in Uganda (held in February in Kampala) combines an analysis of the state of the state of play and recommendations for policy—combined with good and innovative practices from across the world.
Civil registration law in Uganda needed change in the early 2010s, which could only be achieved if first a civil registration policy would have been developed and agreed among stakeholders. The change of law was, inter alia, needed to allow digitisation—including the UNICEF-supported development of 'Mobile-VRS'. Mobile-VRS implied a move towards th...
Upon reaching peace and the conduct of elections in in Côte d'Ivoire in 2011 the United Nations made US 3 million available for civil registration from the United Nations Peace-building Fund. The amount was to be divided between UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA. Already in 2007 the Ouagadougou Accord between the warring parties had determined that citizenshi...
Rapid survey of Sudan's civil registration and identification space. This service commissioned by UNHCR involved also a day of presenting good practices and recommendations for Sudan to an estimated 200 registrars from across Sudan, international organisations (including UNICEF, Plan International) and staff from across government departments.
This presentation was given to about 200 civil registrars from Khartoum and from across Sudan (though not from South Sudan which had become independent in 2011) as well as staff from international organisations including UNICEF and Plan International. The presentation presents ideas for a strategy to enhance the effectiveness of civil registration...
This evaluation commissioned by UNICEF Cameroon assessed the costs and outcomes of UNICEF's efforts to improve the birth registration coverage of children in school. The report has been used not only to change policy in Cameroon but also has been used in other countries and as example included in grant applications to institutional donors, such as...
This report published in 2011 recommended the development of an integrated civil registration and identification system for South Sudan with a proposed linkage to a child benefit grant (model: South Africa) as the government planned to introduce. The country had just gained its independence from Sudan at the time. At the time of writing the report...
Concept note for European Union grant-funding for civil registration improvement in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Myanmar and Pacific Island Countries. The project proposal solicited from UNICEF on the basis of this concept note was successful. In a similar fashion CRC4D work was instrumental in UNICEF's fundraising from the European U...
This report provided management of the UNICEF Eastern- and Southern Africa Office with advice for how to help improve birth registration coverage in the region. Note on page 39, point 64, the observation, within the context of the important role social transfers can play for improving birth registration coverage, the practice of the World Bank to u...
This report drafted for UNICEF Montenegro focusses on the birth registration of children from the Roma minority. Accession to the European Union required Montenegro to address the underregistration in this minority group. Recommendations were made for policy.
This note makes recommendations to the United Nations Statistics Division prior to their organisation of an expert group meeting for the revision of a handbook on civil registration and vital statistics, held in New York in 2010. Note the remarks made with respect to the rise of identification systems (national ID systems). It is only now (2018-201...
Abstract
In December 2000, PLAN International, UNICEF, Civil Registrars and the NGO Committee on UNICEF held a workshop in Surabaya, Indonesia, to look at practices that promote, increase, and improve birth registration. The workshop was undertaken as part of the Unregistered Children Project (UCP), funded (initially) by the NGO Committee on UNICE...
The main body of this report on the Asian Civil Registrars General Convention (ACRGC) held in November 1999 in Bangkok contains country papers on the status of birth registration in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam, while Norway, which was an extraregional g...
Conducting a seminal assessment of the civil- and birth registration status and birth registration coverage in Nepal. I recommend also downloading "A Ticket to Citizenship" which gives the broader, Asian context, of the project that a few years later would expand to Africa and Latin America, often in collaboration with UNICEF. Cf. https://www.resea...
Seminal assessment of the civil- and birth registration status and birth registration coverage in The Philippines, and Asia more broadly, and part of the Unregistered Children Project, a collaborative project of Plan with the NGO Committee on UNICEF. Downloading is recommended also of "A Ticket to Citizenship" which gives the broader, Asian context...
Conducting a seminal assessment of the civil registration status and birth registration coverage in Vietnam. I recommend also downloading "A Ticket to Citizenship" which gives the broader, Asian context, of the project that a few years later would expand to Africa and Latin America, often in collaboration with UNICEF. Cf. https://www.researchgate.n...
Conducting a seminal assessment of the civil- and birth registration status and birth registration coverage in Indonesia. (The main author, Farid Mohammed, sadly passed away at relatively young age.) I recommend also downloading "A Ticket to Citizenship" which gives the broader, Asian context, of the project that a few years later would expand to A...
De ontwikkelingssamenwerking tussen Nederland en Suriname in de periode 1975-1982 is geen onverdeeld succes geweest. De omvangrijke Nederlandse hulpstroom heeft maar weinig bijgedragen tot de beoogde vergroting van de economische weerbaarheid van Suriname. In de praktijk zijn er substitutie-effecten opgetreden, waarbij de hulpgelden de plaats hebbe...
[This paper is also shown (with ± 400 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332752300_Of_Democracy_and_Elections-in_Reverse_On_the_Exorbitant_Increase_in_the_Cost_of_Elections_in_Africa_SSRN_Electronic_Journal. It is added by RG because its algorithms view as not identical.]
Democracy is undergoing a stress test across the wor...
This paper is also shown (with ± 470 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337978870_African_countries_struggle_to_build_robust_identity_systems_But_that_may_soon_change_thanks_to_the_awkward_capture_of_The_Economist_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2020. It is added by RG because its algorithms view as not identical. You are kindly ref...
This paper was already on ResearchGate (with > 1,600 downloads, cf. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335814062_Suriname's_economie_en_de_ontwikkelingssamenwerking_tussen_Nederland_en_Suriname_Economisch-Statische_Berichten_1984_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2020), as it was on Elsevier's SSRN), but apparently ResearchGate is unable to discern tha...
This paper was already on ResearchGate in July 2020 and dowloaded about 330 times as per March 2023) (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343095832_Birth_Registration_for_Every_Child_by_2030_Are_we_on_track_Review_and_Annotated_Version_of_an_Unhelpful_UNICEF_Publication_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2020, as it was on Elsevier's SSRN), but apparentl...
This publication was already published on RG in november 2020, and was dowloaded over 1,400 time (by March 2023). Cf.:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346492010_Identification_for_development_it_is_not_'Inclusive_and_trusted_digital_ID_can_unlock_opportunities_for_the_world's_most_vulnerable'-A_Review_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2020. Please u...
This paper is also shown (with > 80 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352002012_Innovations_in_monitoring_vital_events_Mobile_phone_SMS_support_to_improve_coverage_of_birth_and_death_registration_A_scalable_solution-A_review_Tanzania_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2021, for July 2021. It is added by RG because its algorithms view...
This paper is also shown (with > 300 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355806014_Plutocratic_State_Elite_privilege_and_bungled_identity_management_at_the_jugular_of_democracy_in_Ghana_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2021, for November 2021. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.] DOI numbers fo...
This paper is also shown (with > 300 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357991642_Is_Data_for_Health-funded_research_reliable_and_useful_Self-reporting_bias_red_herring_in_birth_registration_completeness_evaluation_SSRN_eJournal, for January 2022. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.]...
This paper is also shown (with > 220 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359157696_Legal_identity_for_all_or_not_On_the_measurement_of_birth_registration_completeness_SSRN_eJournal, for March 2022. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical. DOI number for SSRN.
This paper is also shown (with > 180 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352711660_Legally_belonging_in_Latin_America_and_the_Caribbean_The_status_of_legal_identity_for_all_SSRN_Electronic_Journal, for June 2021. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.] DOI number for SSRN.
This paper is also shown (with > 1,600 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333618416_Hundred_Years_of_Servitude_From_Kipande_to_Huduma_Namba_in_Kenya, for June 2019. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.] DOI numbers for RG as well as SSRN.
This paper is also shown (with > 130 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334670380_So_You_Think_Digital_Is_the_Future_Your_Internet_Data_Is_Rotting_SSRN_Electronic_Journal, for May 2019. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.] DOI numbers for RG as well as SSRN.
This paper is also shown (with > 50 downloads) under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356509068_Mobile_phonicide_in_identity_management_Reassessing_the_case_of_Ghana's_m-birth_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_2021for November 2021. It is added by RG because its algorithms view this version as not identical.] DOI number for RG as well as SSRN.
Questions
Questions (2)
(My question needed a question mark. What kind of algorithm is that?). I have been on ResearchGate since May 2019 and on SSRN since May 2020. The only comparative metric I can find on Researchgate (with difficulty) puts me behind 65% of other folks on RG. On SSRN, although from a year later, I have moved to the top 11-12% in all-time downloads/author ranking, in the top 5% of downloads over the past 12 months, and in the top 6% over the past 12 months for citations. My "full reads" number on RG is like ten times my all-time downloads on SSRN. I cannot make much sense of the RG metrics (and I'm not alone, it appears). Does anyone have an intelligent explanation for the apparent variance between RG and SSRN in how they rate authors?
People have asked me why there is only an erratum for this publication: . Indeed, when going to "Public files (2)" only the later added erratum file is shown. It is not at all obvious that people then need to click on the upside-down carat to see the other file. You need to change that!
Sincerely,
Jaap van der Straaten
