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The modernization of Civil Status in Ivory Coast

12 February 2024

The National Office of Civil Status and Identification (ONECI) of Ivory Coast is taking a crucial step in its quest for modernization with the effective implementation of the national civil status software, Cityweb. From Monday February 5 to Thursday February 8, 2024, an event of capital importance took place at the ONECI training center, in Angré. Intensive training on Cityweb was provided to sixty civil status officials from various regions of the country.

This initiative demonstrates the unwavering commitment of Semlex and ONECI to providing state agents with the necessary tools for efficient management of civil status. Supervised by Affessi Affessi, civil status project manager, this training session is part of the broader framework of the deployment of Cityweb.

Currently used in 105 civil status centers spread across five Ivorian regions, this software is intended to cover all of the country’s 860 civil status centers, the country’s 37 jurisdictions, as well as the diplomatic and consular representations of the Ivory Coast abroad.

The approach taken to disseminate this innovative technology is based on two main strategies. First of all, regional training aims to reach civil registration centers in their respective regions. This method, successfully tested, allows participants to get to grips with the software after a few days of training, followed by personalized support. Then, a more targeted strategy consists of organizing training sessions directly at the ONECI center, thus responding to the demand expressed by local authorities for the implementation of Cityweb in their municipalities.

After completion of the training, participants will be equipped with IT kits to start practical use of the software in their respective civil registration centers. This practical approach aims to ensure a smooth transition to using Cityweb on a daily basis.

Cityweb represents a significant advance in the management of civil status in Ivory Coast. Its functionality makes it possible to monitor in real time all events related to the civil status of individuals, thus providing effective interoperability between the different civil status centers in the country. No more need to manually transmit documents from one center to another: information is automatically updated throughout the system. This efficiency strengthens the credibility and reliability of the Ivorian civil status system.

At the same time, a company to dematerialize the country’s civil status registers was launched, with the completion of a pilot at the town hall of Grand-Bassam, which was successfully completed, paving the way for digitization, indexing and electronic archiving of the country’s civil registers in the centralized Cityweb database.

This process also allowed the opening of an E-service for online requests for extracts or full copies of dematerialized documents, or initially entered on Cityweb.

The successful launch of the generalization phase of Cityweb, since March 10, 2023 in Yamoussoukro, by the Minister of the Interior and Security, General Vagondo Diamonde, demonstrates the resolute commitment of the Ivorian government to modernize its institutions to better serve its citizens, and to significantly increase birth registration to finally give all the rights of legal existence to the children of Ivory Coast.

The new phase of the deployment of Cityweb in civil status offices, and in health structures for notifications of births and deaths, which began in January 2024, aims to equip 80% of the country’s civil status centers with here at the end of 2024, and at least 400 civil status centers by June 2024.

The implementation of the civil status project by ONECI, in partnership with Semlex, represents a major step in the modernization of civil status in Ivory Coast. Thanks to Cityweb, the country is equipped with a powerful and reliable tool to effectively manage data essential to the lives of its citizens, thus contributing to the strengthening of public administration and the consolidation of the rule of law.