The Prime Minister of the Republic of Gabon, Daniel Ona Ondo officially opened the 11th African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union Commission (AUC), Statistics South Africa and the Gabon Bureau of Statistics.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony included the Gabonese Minister responsible for Statistics and the Minister responsible for Civil Registration, the ASSD President, Pali Lehlohla; the AUC Commissioner for Economics; and the AfDB Director of Statistics, Charles Lufumpa.

Present at the ceremony were many members of the Gabonese Cabinet, members of the diplomatic corps, senior Gabonese Government officials, traditional chiefs, and about 400 delegates led by Directors of Statistics and Civil registration from 54 African countries as well as representatives of bilateral and multilateral institutions.

The theme of the eleventh ASSD was "Promoting the Use of Information and Communications Technology Solutions to Improve CRVS in Africa". The focus is on the use of ICT systems to improve civil registration systems in Africa necessary for generating required data to inform public planning and the efficient delivery of public services such education, health, housing, water and sanitation. The conference was organized in the context of the adoption of recent high-level regional initiatives that have added impetus to the need to accelerate statistical development and coordination in Africa to inform the Sustainable Development Goals development agenda as well as Africa's Agenda 2063.

Other topics discussed at pre-conference meetings included (i) the Africa Information Highway Workshop to discuss progress and the work program under the current phase to significantly improve data collection and dissemination across Africa, and (ii) the Transformative Agenda for Official Statistics aimed at accelerating statistical development to build the capacity necessary to generate data to inform the Sustainable Development Goals agenda and the African Union's Agenda 2063.

The AfDB delegation was led by the Director of the Statistics Department, Charles Lufumpa, and included the AfDB's Resident Representative for Gabon, Lamine Zeine Ali; the Manager of the Statistical Capacity Building Division, Oliver Chinganya; the Officer-in-charge of the Economic and Social Statistics Division, Maurice Mubila; and other staff.