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 13 October 2008 08:49 BST

Millions 'live invisibly'

Monday, 29 Oct 2007 08:31
Millions of births go unrecorded
Millions of people are living invisibly because of failures to collect data on births and deaths worldwide, a series of reports warn today.

Experts behind the reports say a new international body needs to be set up to improve civil registration efforts.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet journal that the reports are published in, said the campaign for a new body is "about how much each of us values the life of every other human being" and a "test of our humanity".

Over three-quarters of the millions of uncounted people live in sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia.

It is estimated that less than a third of the world's population is covered by accurate data on births and deaths.

This data is vital, the Lancet series says, as without it countries cannot accurately predict the amount of aid needed to help others.

One paper says data is central to policy formation, for example in developed countries information on increasing rates of road traffic fatalities up to the 1970s led to speed limits, seatbelt laws, and laws on alcohol use and driving.

And in India birth monitoring has shed light on the extent to which female foetuses have been selectively aborted.

"Overcoming decades of stagnation will need countries to make a principled long-term commitment to comprehensive civil registration, and to make pragmatic use of complementary or alternative registration systems and sources of data for vital events and cause of death in the short term and medium term," authors of one report conclude.

"The continued cost of ignorance borne by countries without civil registration far outweighs the affordable necessity of action."
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