African Centre for Statistics United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Proposed Regional Medium-term Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Plan August 2010 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Dimitri Sanga (ACS) & Charles Lufumpa (AfDB) African Statistical Coordination Committee First Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration

African Centre for Statistics 2 Content 2 The plan Overall goal Objectives and related targets Strategies Institutional frameworks Planned activities Resource requirements Risks and assumptions

African Centre for Statistics 3 The plan 3 Development of the plan: one of the recommendations of the Tanzania regional workshop on CRVS (July 2009) Covered period: 2010 to 2012 Addressing a regional agenda: Reforming and improving CRVS systems in Africa

African Centre for Statistics 4 Overall goal 4 To support African countries in their quest to to build modern and accountable public administrations, conducting effective policy and programme formulation, as well as monitoring and evaluation of their development initiatives.

African Centre for Statistics 5 Objectives 5 Two main objectives:  To improve the capacity of African countries in the recording, management and service provision on vital events  To build the capacity of national vital statistics compiling offices in the compilation, processing, and dissemination of flow of demographic and related statistics for sub-national, national, regional and international consumptions

African Centre for Statistics 6 Specific Objectives 6 Across four main components:  Civil registration  Vital statistics  Timeliness and data quality  Databases development

African Centre for Statistics 7 Specific objectives: Civil registration 7 Objective: To improve the coverage by the end of the plan period as follows:  2/3 of countries with current coverage levels below 40% to reach more than 50%  2/3 of countries with current coverage levels between 40-60% to reach more than 60%  2/3 of countries with current coverage levels between 60-80% to reach more than 80%.

African Centre for Statistics 8 Specific Objectives: Vital statistics 8 Objective: To improve the completeness by the end of the plan period as follows:  2/3 of countries with current completeness levels below 40 % to reach more than 50%  2/3 of countries with current completeness levels between % to reach more than 60%  2/3 of countries with current completeness levels between 60-80% to reach more than 80%.

African Centre for Statistics 9 9 To reduce the lag of release of annual vital statistics reports to below six months in those countries currently producing such reports To increase the number of countries producing vital statistics reports by 50% To increase the number of countries using vital statistics from civil registration in population size estimation and projection by 50% To increase the number of countries using death records for compiling causes of death statistics by 50% Specific Objectives: Timeliness and data quality

African Centre for Statistics 10 Objective: Initiation of the creation of population register/databases in at least half of countries by the end of the plan period Specific Objectives: Databases

African Centre for Statistics 11 Conducting comprehensive assessments of the status of CRVS systems in African countries Updating and improving methodologies, operational and monitoring mechanisms Strengthening collaboration and integration of CR and VS organs Harmonizing initiatives and approaches Promoting data use and quality assurance mechanisms Building sub-regional, regional and international partnerships fora Strategies

African Centre for Statistics 12 Governments, civil registration authorities and NSOs will implement the plan ECA, AUC and AfDB will support the implementation of the plan RECs, sub-regional organizations and international organizations will collaborate Regional Statistical Training Centers and academic institutions will be involved in capacity building Institutional Framework

African Centre for Statistics 13 Six thematic areas are identified :  Capacity building  Innovation and harmonization of techniques and approaches  Promoting knowledge and sharing good practices  Strengthening regional and national vital statistics production  Promoting study and research  Building partnership, peer-support groups and promoting country ownership Planned Activities

African Centre for Statistics 14 Details of specific activities and outputs are presented in the main document under Annex 1. Planned Activities (Cont’d)

African Centre for Statistics 15 The total financial resources for the three-year plan ( ): $2.706 million Capacity building activities have the biggest share: 38.3% Partnership building, peer support groups and promoting country ownership: 25.5% 1 st and 2 nd years: a relatively higher share compared to the 3 rd year This Conference: highest share (over 61%) of budget of year 1 Resource Requirements

African Centre for Statistics 16 Thematic area Year TotalPercentage Capacity building Innovation and harmonization of techniques and approaches Promoting knowledge and sharing good practices Strengthening regional and national vital statistics production Promoting studies and research Building partnership, peer support groups and promoting country ownership Strengthening ECA-African Centre for Statistics (ACS) Total , Percentage

African Centre for Statistics 17 Risks:  Countries in/post conflict  Recovery from global financial crises: delays  CRVS not institutionalized permanently in ECA and AfDB structures or programmes  Some UN specialized agencies may take time to align to the new approach  Partners may continue uncoordinated interventions Assumptions:  National governments consider CRVS as national priority agenda  Partners continue and sustain their support Risks and Assumptions

African Centre for Statistics 18 No such regional plan in the past 2010 activities ongoing as planned:  Organizing the ministerial conference  Preparation of some technical guidelines Countries will be supported in preparing their plans and programmes Budget for the remaining two and half years expected to be secured soon Way forward

African Centre for Statistics 19 CRVS need to be properly institutionalized at national and regional levels Support and cooperation platforms and harmonized operational mechanisms need to be established at regional and international levels Way forward

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