On behalf of Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, we are honoured to announce that once again South Africa will host on behalf of the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa the forthcoming Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Ministerial Conference, at the Durban’s International Convention Centre scheduled from 3 to 7 September 2012.
The Conference is coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC), African Development Bank, and the South African Government.
The Ministerial Conference will be chaired by Minister and Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma when it officially begins its deliberations on 6 September 2012 and will be addressed by among others representatives of the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and World Health Organisation.
The conference will be attended by 54 African Ministers responsible for civil registration and statistics and 500 delegates from African countries including senior civil registration technical experts, development partners, young statisticians, and professional associations.
The South African government delegation will be led by Minister Dlamini Zuma and include representatives of the Ministries of Home Affairs, International Relations and Cooperation, Health, Social Development, South African Police Service (SAPS), Defence and Statistics South Africa.
The Ministerial Conference will be preceded by a meeting of experts from 3 to 5 September to which will provide a comprehensive analytical framework and a roadmap that will culminate in recommendations for the Ministers to deliberate upon and ratify.
The conference is convened under the theme “Improving Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Institutional and Human Infrastructure in Africa”.
In this regard, the objectives of the conference are:
- to review progress and address institutional and human infrastructural challenges,
- to integrate civil registration operations and services with health information management systems and national identification systems, and
- to develop mechanisms for monitoring of progress.
Minister Dlamini Zuma says “the conference hopes to confront the challenges caused by the absence of reliable vital events data such as births, deaths, marriage, and divorce on their citizenry on the African continent. Such statistics enable government to plan holistically for their national development and planning with a view to providing quality services to their citizenry”.
“South Africa supports the reform and improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics on the continent. In this context, the government has embarked on major initiatives such as the launch by President Jacob Zuma and Minister Dlamini Zuma of the National Population Registration Campaign aimed at encouraging the registration of every child birth within 30 days of delivery while mobilising youths to apply for ID’s on reaching the age of 16 years and above.
"Equally the government has embarked on regular census to count the number of people resident in the country to assist with the overall economic developmental planning” concluded Minister Dlamini Zuma.
The Ministerial Conference will wind up its deliberations with the adoption of a Conference Declaration scheduled for 7 September 2012, which will be announced at a press briefing by Minister Dlamini Zuma and other conference representatives.
Background notes on the CRVS conference: 3 to 7 September 2012
South Africa will be hosting the Second Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration on 6 – 7 September 2012 at the International Convention Centre in Durban. This will be preceded by a meeting of experts from 3 - 5 September 2012.
The Conference is jointly organised by the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Core Group member institutions, which include the United Nations Commission on Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank (AfDB), African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Health Metrics Network (HMN) together with the Government of South Africa.
- The Ministerial conference is expected to gather 250-300 participants, including the 54 African Ministers responsible for civil registration, senior civil registration technical experts, Ministers of Health, Planning and Finance, Ambassadors, Development Partners, young statisticians and professional associations.
- The objectives of the Second Conference are, amongst others, to review progress, to address institutional and human infrastructural challenges, to integrate civil registration operations and services with health information management systems and national identification systems and to develop mechanisms for monitoring of progress.
The First Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration was held in August 2010 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The three premier regional organisations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) were the lead agencies in coordinating and managing the organisation of the conference jointly with the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
The Second Conference is being organised in accordance with the resolution of the first conference which resolved that the African Ministers conference be institutionalised as a standing regional platform that would be organised every two years. The preceding preparatory meeting of experts will provide a comprehensive analytical framework and a roadmap that will be translated into policy statement by the Ministers.
- The second conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registrations will be held under the theme: “Improving Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Institutional and Human Infrastructure in Africa”.
- The Conference will tackle the challenges caused by the absence of reliable vital events data such as births, deaths, marriage and divorce on the African continent.
- Except for Seychelles and Mauritius, African countries have not reached the level of international standard of completion of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, a status which had led to a phenomenon known as the “Scandal of Invisibility”. This refers to a state in which some people are born and die without leaving a trace in any legal record or official statistic, therefore, rendering them unseen and uncountable.
- A functional civil registration system is the basis for building modern legal and public administration systems and the first step is collecting reliable vital statistics.
The Minister of Home Affairs and Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will lead the South African Delegation at the Conference. A Local Organising Committee (LOC) led by the Department of Home Affairs and Statistics South Africa have coordinated preparations for the Conference. The LOC includes the Departments of International Relations and Cooperation, Health, Social Development, Defence, the South African Police Services (SAPS), Tourism, Trade and Industry and the State Security Agency (SSA).
Statement by the Department of Home Affairs and Statistics South Africa.
Enquiries:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Mmemme Mogotsi
Cell: 072 856 4288
