Programme Director
Commissioner for Economic Affairs Department at the African Union Commission: His Excellency, Dr Anthony Mothai Maruping
Minister of State, Minister of Interior and Security of the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire, Honourable Hamed Bakayoko
The Lord mayor of Yammassoukro, Mr Jean Kouakou Gnrangbe (pronounced Jeranbe)
The governor of Yammassoukro, Mr Augustin Thiam
Ministers present, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
All protocol observed.
Allow me to congratulate the Elephants for their long awaited victory of the Africa Cup of Nations. It was a thrilling victory worth enjoying with fellow Africans, we would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleagues from Equatorial Guinea for hosting a successful Africa Cup of Nations that had all of us glued to our television screens. Our plan of our future today should ensure that no one remains behind.
We are gathered here inspired by technological possibilities converging with our mutual desire to the implementation of data systems that empower states to operate with exactitudes in our planning processes, systems that enable policy makers to make decisions that impact positively on the welfare of our citizens and which if done well, will ensure that everything we do, from holding elections to providing life saving medical vaccines and immunisation services, from developing secure banking services to the building of schools, from immigration management to establishing regional protocols on free movement of people – All of these and more will be realised in a more sophisticated and beneficial manner than was possible before. It is our quest that no birth of an African child goes unrecorded. No death of any citizen goes unregistered. Our citizens deserve this singular dignity: the recording of their existence while being accorded at birth unmitigated citizenship. We are inspired and compelled toward Africa’s Vision 2063 and through forging our common objectives today, we can and will ensure that no one is left behind.
My task is to give an account on behalf of South Africa as an outgoing Chair of the Conference of Ministers on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics. This report is presented against ten important resolutions that were taken by two previous Ministerial conferences.
We agreed that countries commit to strengthen their Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS systems). Against this commitment we have witnessed improved and sustained political support for CRVS activities in various countries and to date, and between the two Ministerial Conferences our institutions of civil registration and vital statistics have continued to work together. Twenty country assessments on CRVS have been undertaken by the Core Group.
We further agreed to call upon the Pan-African Institutions to develop a programme on CRVS and I am pleased to announce that despite the thin staffing levels the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS) has produced and implemented the medium term plan 2010-2015 and they will later submit to us a request to approve the 2016-2020 Medium Term Plan.
We called upon the AU Commission to institutionalise the conference as a permanent conference and as we meet this 3rd conference of ministers it is being held under the auspices of the AUC for the first time.
Previous conferences recognised the need for an integrated and holistic planning and implementation approach and in this regard the APAI-CRVS is guided by an integrated approach as we can witness that the participants are from civil registration and statistics institutions. The reports presented in the last two days, for the first time show the result of this integrated approach in that in 14 of the 27 countries, vital statistics has been drawn from the civil registration systems.
For instance in the report from Botswana the statistics office for the first time compiled data from the civil registration system and accorded it a stamp of approval, with important data such as birth rates being calculated from this data.
As regards our previous resolution requiring improved coordination among stakeholders at the regional and country levels, we can report that Regional CRVS Core Groups and technical committees have been constituted and are functional in many countries and these managed to organise the 22 country assessments. We have the largest congregation of actively engaged partners in the APAI-CRVS and through the sharing of resources the thinly staffed and under-resourced Secretariat has managed to admirably undertake its task.
In this regard our assessment missions have been driven with the support of partners in the core group and pooling of experts. The Secretatriate have trained up to 30 experts in CRVS assessments; it has developed tools and guidelines, trained a large number of officials, supported technical missions, and engaged in country to country support on the continent. However we must note that a cadre of trainees to support French speaking Africa is being initiated in Abidjan at the close of this 3rd Conference.
We previously resolved to conduct comprehensive assessments and develop action plans – development partners to support. There are 22 countries that have undertaken or initiated assessments. Several countries have expressed their interest to undertake similar assessments in 2015.
In order to provide sustained collaboration between statisticians and civil registrars we previously called upon the Africa Symposium on Statistical Development to prioritise CRVS. In this regard the 7th, 8th and 9th ASSD focused exclusively on CRVS resulting in improved coordination among CR and Statistical agencies as we can witness today.
With the successful working together of statisticians and registrars we called for the alignment of health systems with CRVS systems and although there is some progress it remains very slow.
We had resolved to develop results- based monitoring and evaluation systems at the regional level and in this area the results based monitoring and evaluation systems at the regional level have been developed and online reporting systems will be rolled out.
The Secretariate has reviewed the CRVS status of 27 countries and can confirm that in the last two years twelve of the 27 countries have revised their laws. In 18 countries staff has been significantly increased to service CRVS. In each of the seventeen countries budgets for CRVS have increased significantly, and collaboration amongst development partners has been effective as well as within countries. High level collaboration has been confirmed in 17 countries and countries with a computerised CR national database are recorded to be 14 out of the 27 countries. We are indeed on course.
Africa is creating a success story yet to be told centuries to come. It is a story that against all scepticism towards Africa succeeding in CRVS. ( We have learnt with pride from those who presented that now smartcards are being implemented in Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Mauritania and many other countries who did not present.)
Following on humble beginnings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2010, Africa came forward with the initiative of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS).
Further progress was made at the CRVS meeting in Durban, South Africa in 2012, and great strides have been made since then with APAI-CRVS as just reported.
Way Forward
Going forward, Africa must provide thought leadership and strategic leadership, though there is no desire to exclude anybody. The AU have adopted CRVS as part of its agenda; but to make CRVS in Africa sustainable will require great resources.
To these resources are effectively and responsibly used, they should ideally be channelled through the African Union Commission (AUC), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Development Bank (ADB).
There must be synergies between African countries, compatability and inter-operability of systems must be factored into the palnning. Implementation plans and systems must be synergised between countries at inception or early stages of development.
The 3 institutions – AUC, ECA and ADB- must develop a financing strategy that can be used to mobilise and distribute resources. The CRVS structures should also be reviewed with a view to strengthening them to ensure their sustainability.
CRVS has spinoffs for Africa’s development, both in technology, and industrial 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 stateless on the continent.
In conclusion we wish to take this opportunity to inform the house that as part of own review and strengthening of CRVS system, South Africa will from the beginning of June 2015 require all children under the age of 18 to have the permission of both parents when travelling in and out of the country. In this regard our requirement is for an unabridged birth certificate or its equivalent which is any official document which records the child’s parents vital details. This was necessitated by our commitment to combat the scourge of child stealing and trafficking.
