Saint Lucia gets ready to modernize its civil status registry

Friday 28 May 2010 – Modernization of Saint Lucia’s civil registry is expected to get underway by the fourth quarter of 2010 with technical assistance from the Organization of American States’ Universal Civil Identity Program in the Americas (PUICA).

Funding for the project will also be provided by the Governments of Canada, Chile, and the United States of America. This was confirmed by the program’s recently appointed Caribbean Coordinator Mr. Paul Hughes, during his visit from Washington DC to Saint Lucia, from the 13th -14th of May, to lay the groundwork for implementation of the project.

On the 13th of May, Mr. Hughes met with Karlene Francis, Project Manager of the E-Government for Regional Integration Project, to see if there were areas of duplication that the two projects could avoid and better utilize resources. On the 14th of May, he held another meeting with the Registrar and other registry officials to tour the Saint Lucia facilities and be briefed on the processes and problems being encountered. Mr. Hughes commented that Saint Lucia is not the only OECS country that is facing serious challenges within the civil registry and if not addressed quickly could have far reaching negative effects for the whole sub region.

The project was initiated in 2006 by the signing of an agreement and memorandum of understanding between the OAS and the government of Saint Lucia.

In June 2008, a feasibility study on the current system was carried out under the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Civil Registry and Identity Project funded by the Chilean government. Based on the study, the modernization process is expected to have four components: digitization and preservation of records; modernization of the legal framework; computerization of the processes; and creation of an identity system. OAS assistance will be primarily in the form of advisory services, training, hardware and software.

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