Addis Ababa — The role of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in attaining good governance in Africa as well as the need for good governance itself in conducting the civil registration processes across the continent, will come under review at a regional conference slated for the 7th to the 9th of February 2015 in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.

This third Conference of Ministers Responsible for civil Registration which will also bring together heads of civil registration offices and national statistics offices, representatives of regional and international organizations, as well as relevant United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Coming on the heels of two previous conferences on the subject which resulted in the adoption of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS), the Yamoussoukro rendez-vous will review progress made in achieving the goals of the first two ministerial encounters.

It willnarrow-in on clear policy and programmatic guidance towards establishing complete and efficient CRVS systems that can help countries achieve good governance. These specifically include crafting a sustainable capacity development strategy on CRVS and providing guidance on accessibility of registration services, particularly through the health sector,achieving interoperability of civil registration with national ID and electoral systems, ensuring the use of appropriate technology solutions, laying a framework for civil registration in conflict and emergency situations and mainstreaming gender concerns into CRVS processes.

AUC's leadership

This will be the first in the series of the Conferenceto be organized under the auspices of the African Union Commission (AUC) - which is a vital step in continent's commitment to making use of CRVS in governance and development. The Conference is being organized in collaboration with the regional CRVS core group, which is made up of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Children's fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), INDEPTH Network, Plan International, the secretariat of the African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD), represented by Statistics South Africa, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) which serves as the secretariat of APAI-CRVS.

Critical requirement for good governance

The organizers maintain that having credible civil registration data that is timely and representative of all is a critical requirement for good governance. The statistics generated from a CRVS system help Governments to develop and implement programmes at all levels, including the lowest administrative levels, and monitor their progress on a regular basis. In addition, birth and death data from civil registration systems can be used to determine population estimates in the interim years between population censuses, as well as for population projections.