Adolf Kaure
The minister of health and social services, Dr Esperance Luvindao said that Namibia’s digital healthcare transformation has been essential in providing the fundamental shift on how all the citizens receive care.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) learning visit on e-birth notification and integrated Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems in Windhoek on Monday, Luvindao said that the introduction of e-Birth notifications system provides solutions in all layers of the country’s healthcare system.
“In the past, our health systems and our civil registration systems often operated in silos. The e-Birth and e-Death notification systems are just some of the testimonies of the Namibian Government’s commitment to digital reforms to modernize and accelerate broad-based delivery of services to all our people.”
With delegates from countries like Senegal, Ethiopia and Botswana in attendance, the visit was held to provide insight and peer-learning opportunities on e-birth notification and integrated CRVS systems.
The Namibian government has launched key strategic guiding documents and policy frameworks, including the Universal Health Coverage Policy of 2025 and the National Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition Strategy (2025-2030) and the newly launched National Digital Health Policy (2026–2036).
According to Luvindao, the implementation of these strategic initiatives lies at the centre of the Government’s efforts to achieve the national Universal Health Coverage Policy objectives. “The documents and frameworks have modernized the health system through electronic medical records, telehealth, and artificial intelligence – enhancing service delivery, accessibility, and efficiency,” she said.
The National Health Digital Policy envisions a digitally empowered health system that ensures equitable, efficient, and quality health services for all people in Namibia.
Through the National e-Health Strategy (2021–2025), Namibia took the first decisive steps to digitize its health information systems, strengthen governance, and improve data use for decision-making. Namibia’s Vision 2030 provides a challenge to build a healthy, knowledge-based, and inclusive society. For this society to thrive, technology is needed as catalyst for equitable access to quality healthcare.
Pillars of Namibia’s digital healthcare transformation
Namibia’s digital healthcare transformation is anchored on three mutually reinforcing pillars, which includes governance and ethics.
“Establishing a transparent, accountable, and legally anchored framework for data protection interoperability, and ethical use of health information,” said Luvindao.
The other pillars are infrastructure and innovation as well as capacity and Equity: Building digital literacy among the health workforce and communities, ensuring that technology bridges the inequalities rather than deepening them.
The fundamental pillars will be achieved through six key objectives, which are governance and legal harmonization, digital infrastructure and interoperability, human capacity strengthening, research and innovation, equitable access to digital services, as well as sustainable financing mechanisms.
Namibia’s successful CRVS ecosystem
Over the past decade, Namibia has pursued an integrated, digital approach to civil registration and identity management.
The minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security, Lucia Iipumba highlighted Namibia’s success in building a robust CRVS ecosystem. “Key among these achievements is our e-Notification System, which includes e-Birth and e-Death notifications.
The e-Birth Notification was introduced in health facilities in 2017, followed by the e-Death Notification in 2018,” Iipumbu remarked. Currently, the system connects 153 facilities, including state and private hospitals, police mortuaries, and old age homes, enabling real-time electronic notifications that feed directly into civil registration processes.
Iipumbu also noted that best practices and peer learning over the event will be essential.
“We are eager to share these experiences in detail over the coming days: the design and rollout of our e-Notification processes, the business processes for births and deaths, our institutional arrangements, and the practical lessons from implementation.
We are equally keen to learn from your respective countries — your innovations, challenges overcome, as well as best practices in CRVS strengthening and integration with health and other sectors,” she said.
Namibia’s e-Notification System acknowledged
Speaking on behalf of Africa CDC director general Dr Jean Kaseya, the organisation’s director of primary health care centre at the Africa CDC, Dr Landry Tsague congratulated the Namibian Government for the implementation the e-birth notification system. “It represents a revolutionary idea to embed digitalization within primary health care starting right from the maternity wards in the country.
Your leadership and commitment to innovation in digital health and civil registration systems are not only commendable but truly inspiring for the entire continent.”
The United Nations’ Sustainability Goals (SDG) 16.9 calls for legal identity for all by 2030, including free birth registration”.
This is a goal Africa strives to achieve as the continent gains momentum in strengthening civil registration and vital statistics systems, which is a foundational pillar for realization of the SDG.
Namibia’s e-birth notification system has been sustained with such high coverage, surpassing 99% in birth registration countrywide.
The five-day event concludes on Friday.