"Madania" Civil Status System: Bringing services closer to citizens

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1 Republic of Tunisia Ministry of Interior and Local Development "Madania" Civil Status System: Bringing services closer to citizens Definition and most important uses of civil status documents Civil status: is the registration of the individual status due to birth or any changes in personal situation such as marriage, divorce or death. Civil status documents: are copies of documents issued out of the original registries of birth, marriage or death: Birth certificate. Marriage certificate. Death certificate. Most important use of civil status documents: Citizens are required to submit civil status documents especially for school enrolment, passing national exams, marriage, obtaining retirement pensions or official documents such as National identity card, passport... The situation before "Madania" system: Civil status events (birth, marriage, divorce and death) were registered only manually in the municipality (city) in which the event took place. Citizen can obtain civil status documents only from the municipality where the event was registered. A copy of the civil status document is delivered to citizen after being manually copied from the original registries. Disadvantages of the situation before "Madania" system: The need for citizens to deal with the municipality where the civil status event is registered, which leads to an additional cost and a waste of time. 1

2 The length of the periods and procedures to deliver civil status documents to citizens, as the process requires the consultation of manual registries. Importance of human resources employed by municipalities to satisfy citizen s requests, especially in peak periods (beginning of the school year, marriages in summer...). Launch of the Initiative The initiative is launched under the government's program to upgrade Tunisian administration, and as part of the vigorous follow up of the President of the Republic of administrative services delivered to citizens, his Excellency recommended in his speech at the Municipalities National Conference held on January 19, 2002: "Accelerating the accomplishment of the Civil status National Programme and generalizing it to all municipalities as soon as possible, in order to ensure the obtaining of civil status documents from any municipality". Structures and entities contributing to the program achievement: This initiative is a part of the Tunisian government program to upgrade administration, in order to further modernize working methods, improve the quality of services and bring them closer to citizens. Many government structures and entities have contributed to elaborate and implement this initiative (Ministry of Interior and Local Development, Ministry of Communication Technologies and the National Computer Center), and also municipalities with the participation of the private sector (Tunisian Consultancies). Objectives of "Madania" System: bringing services closer to citizen: Allowing citizens to obtain civil status documents from any municipality, regardless of the one where the event was registered. 2

3 Shortening periods for service delivery (Few minutes instead of one day). Avoiding errors resulting from manual copying method. Rationalizing the use of the resources allocated to civil status departments in municipalities, especially human resources. Components of "MADANIA" system: A unified computer system operating in Arabic and French, in order to manage the various civil status facts. Data transmission network between all sites (municipal districts, municipalities, Governorates and Delegations ). A system for monitoring and managing transmission networks. Implementation and development stages: Elaborating studies on technical requirements related to: System Development. Equipments needs. Structuring of data transmission network. System and network Safety aspects. Achieving the system and generalizing it to municipalities. Storing manual data in the system (4 years: storage, revision, validation). Madania system Structure: Back office sites The Civil status database, located in the National Computer Center, contains all the events registered since the year 1887 (About acts). All the Regions (24). Front office sites (462 sites) All the municipalities (264) and municipal districts (119). All the Delegations where there are no municipalities (18). 3

4 Technological environment of the system Structure: client server. Databases management system. Windows Operating system. Network Engineering: hierarchical network using 3 levels: o Central server in the National Computer Center under the authority of the Ministry of Communication Technologies. o Back up at the level of the Computer General Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and Local Development. o 425 distributors in the sites using the system. 436 digital lines (for data transmission) with an appropriate flow client post. Establishment of an application at the National Computer Center to monitor the network and to allow diagnostic of failures. Safety measures: Establishment of a system to protect data exchanges. Establishment of anti virus systems. Establishment of firewall systems. The use of personalised passwords for each user. Parallel measures: Legislative and regulatory levels: Promulgation of a law strengthening the protection of personal data. Promulgation of a Decree allowing civil status officers to elaborate and deliver civil status documents remotely. Elaboration and generalization to municipalities of a "Charter for a good use of the system. 4

5 Organizational level Technical assistance: Development and use of a call centre to assist the users of the system. Elaboration of procedures manuals for users. Training: Upgrading human resources through training courses relating to civil status and technical sides of the system. Trainers' training. Training the users (1500 users). Sustainability of the system: A number of rules were established to ensure the sustainability of the system particularly through the provision of necessary financial resources in municipal budgets for the maintenance and renewal of equipments and upgrading and recycling human resources. Results: All the objectives mentioned above have been reached. Madania system allowed: The establishment of 37 speed service bureaus outside municipality's headquarters (Malls, markets, central bus and train stations). Delivering civil status documents outside the normal administrative worktime. Madania system has also allowed the re deployment of about 80% of the former civil status departments staff in other municipal departments. The transmission network established for Madania is used for other municipal computer applications as well, such as the financial resources management system and the budget management system. 5

6 Statistics: Since the date of the introduction of Madania (April 2005) until the end of 2009, more than 44,3 million civil status documents have been delivered (For a population of about 10,5 million). The development of the system (MADANIA II): New Perspectives As directed by the President of the Republic, Madania system is about to be developed from the A C stage Administration Citizen, to an A A one Administration Administration, by allowing public structures to use it without asking citizens for civil status documents. Pilot experiments have been implemented with social security funds, including in a first stage about retirees, allowing a significant saving of about civil status documents and minimizing pressure on social security funds counters. Also, studies are being prepared to allow the use of the civil status database by other specialized public institutions such as the National Institute of Statistics to elaborate statistics in social, economic, demographic and health fields (vaccination programs). An ongoing study is interested in the technical sides to allow educational institutions as well to use civil status database. Mr. Hassen SLIM Ministry of Interior and Local Development Tunisia 6