17-01414
Fourth Conference of African Ministers AUC/CRMC4/EXP/2017/03 responsible for Civil Registration
Experts meeting Nouakchott
4-8 December 2017
Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary Speech
AUC/CRMC4/EXP/2017/03
Excellences,
Distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a privilege to be here with you today and to welcome you to the fourth Conference of Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration. This conference is a treasured occasion that transforms how we approach the improvement of civil registration and vital statistics systems in Africa. Knowing precisely how many children are born, how many people live in the country, the leading causes of death, fertility rates and life expectancy, is vital for Governments to be able to respond to the people’s needs through more functional, efficient and targeted policies at national and local levels. These systems contribute to an effective public administration, harnessing the demographic dividend and putting in place good governance and basic human rights, a prerequisite for sustainable development.
Bearing in mind that this conference is organized under the theme: “Accelerating a coordinated improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) for implementation and monitoring development in Africa: Review of progress and the way forward”, makes this meeting an appropriate venue to contextualize the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS) within the backdrop of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063. The alignment of the conference theme with these development agendas permeate an enabling environment for national development plans to build the essential political momentum for identifying key challenges that impede the implementation of APAI-CRVS at the regional level and in countries; and propose sound solutions. Inversely, this furnishes strategic direction to invigorate APAI-CRVS through a systematic review of pertinent issues that eventually improves civil registration and vital statistics actions on the continent.
For the first time, the legal identity and birth registration for each child by 2030, turned into a global programme under the Sustainable Development Goal target 16.9, which clearly indicates that: “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”; and goal target 17.18 emphasizes the fact that: “By 2020, capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least-developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national context.”
In August 2014, the United Nations Secretary-General established the Independent Expert and Advisory Group on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development; and the United Nations World Data Forum on Sustainable Development Data held in Cape Town, South Africa in January 2017 clearly reiterated the need for strong statistical systems in the measurement of development. In this regard, many internationally acknowledged experts underscored the importance of well-developed civil registration systems as fundamental sources of good quality statistics for measuring development indicators.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
At the advent of the twenty-first century, it is bothersome to notice that despite the well- documented benefits of civil registration and vital statistics, many countries still do not have adequate systems. There is little available reliable data on how many persons in Africa lack birth, death and marriage certificates and complete national identification documents.
Administrative collections of birth and death, as undertaken by civil registration systems, remain the surest way to derive accurate and real-time fertility and mortality measures for a population.
APAI CRVS since the first ministerial conference on CRVS in Addis Ababa in 2010, only seven years ago, the continental drive towards well-functioning civil registration systems has continued to be steered with speed and impetus of incredible dimensions. APAI CRVS, since the first ministerial conference on civil registration and vital statistics in Addis Ababa in 2010, has continued its continental drive towards well-functioning civil registration systems and has continued forward with speed and impetus of incredible dimensions Civil registration and vital statistics systems are recognized by the three lead Pan African institutions, namely, the African Union, the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa, as the foundational pillars for the realization of the continental vision “the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063”. Even with the immense progress that has been achieved in Africa since the first ministerial conference, the challenges related to further developments, in particular the introduction of digitalization, coordination, legislative, administrative, organizational, and financial and human resources, among others, still exist. Notwithstanding the thin staffing levels, the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics has produced and implemented the medium-term plan 2010–2015, and in this meeting will submit to us a request to approve the 2017–2021 Strategic Plan.
The coordination of APAI-CRVS among stakeholders has progressively improved at the regional and country levels, through the regional civil registration and vital statistics Core Groups and these efforts have managed to establish the 29 country assessments. The results- based monitoring and evaluation systems at the regional and national levels have been developed; and online reporting systems have been rolled out, among other achievements.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
National and international mobility of people requests from the States to implement international civil registration legal standards and standards on cooperation, from security to data privacy and universal human rights standards; and Africa is not an exception. There is no realistic expectation of reaching freedom of movement without having an effective civil registration and vital statistics system. The rapid changes and progress in societies today necessitate that all persons have legal civil registration documents that can be trusted. Secure civil registration and vital statistics management systems that capture the whole life cycle of a person can only be supported by the appropriate registration of vital events. For many States, establishing proper systems require immense investments and adjustments in the organizational, institutional and technical frameworks. It is necessary that all changes be implemented in alignment with set international standards. Digitalization of civil registration systems in African States will pave the way for a reliable population registry, databases that contain private data on civil status and it will help to raise the need to develop adequate legal protection of privacy and personal data. These developments contributed to e-CRVS as global concept will enhance areas with poor system CRVS management systems. These developments
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have contributed to e-civil registration and vital statistics as a global concept that will also enhance the areas with poor civil registration and vital statistics management systems
Ladies and gentlemen,
Going forward, this landmark meeting has to improve the understanding of the centrality of civil registration and vital statistics in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, Agenda 2063 and international human rights instruments. It should provide concrete agreement [[ The desired outcome of this meeting is to provide a specific agreement..]] on what strategic direction to take to revitalize the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems through a systematic review and improving coordination, monitoring and reporting, as well as endorsing the civil registration and vital statistics strategic plan for 2017–
2021.
Africa must provide strategic leadership and there must be synergies between African countries. Compatibility and inter-operability of systems must be factored into the civil registration and vital statistics planning processes. Implementation plans and systems must be synergized between countries at the inception or early stages of development. The demographic dividend in which Africa’s population will double from one billion to two billion by 2063, cannot be fully exploited if Governments lack the tools to understand basic developments, such as how many children are born, how many people die, who is stateless and who moves from one country to another. Only then can we ensure the development of our people and only then can we extinguish statelessness on the continent.
