1. African Centre for Statistics United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System in Africa- Towards enhanced Regional Coordination and Cooperation Meeting of Experts on Post-Ministerial Conference Activities on CRVS in Africa 17-21 January 2011 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Raj Gautam Mitra Chief, Demographic and Social Statistics Section, Learning from past mistakes and changing gears

2. African Centre for Statistics 2 Past efforts made by Regional and International agencies 2 UNFPA – late 70s’ to early 90s’ Project based – testing pilots, creating models Was not sustainable Lack of country ownership

3. African Centre for Statistics 3 Past efforts made by Regional and International agencies 3 In 1990s the UN adopted the International Program for Accelerating the Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) A series of Handbooks (eight) were prepared which were very comprehensive and dealt with each and every aspect of CRVS in the late nineties A number of training programmes were held Not much impact in the African Region

4. African Centre for Statistics 4 What have been the challenges? 4  The Guidelines (PARIS 21) developed for National Strategies for Development of Statistics (NSDS) did not directly address CRVS  Regional organization did not play a pro-active role in promoting CRVS in the members countries  Donors not interested as it does not show immediate outcomes or impacts – long term engagement  Little or no interest among the academicians as it does not produce immediately usable data – more prominence to unconventional methods/indirect techniques

5. African Centre for Statistics 5 5  Lack of Country ownership and leadership  Lack of proper legal framework, weak operations and management functions in CRVS  Inadequate interfacing between civil registration system and national statistical system  Inadequate capacity in administering and implementing CRVS What have been the challenges?

6. African Centre for Statistics 6 6 What needs to be done? At Country level Secure country ownership and leadership - at political level Set up a high level coordination mechanism at national level Undertake comprehensive country assessment Prepare costed and time bound national action plan in line with the International principles and recommendations and regional guidelines

7. African Centre for Statistics 7 7 What needs to be done? At International/ Regional level Provide a standing regional platform at political level for addressing policy issues, develop agenda for action and track progress Support countries in undertaking comprehensive assessments Support countries in developing National Action Plan

8. African Centre for Statistics 8 8 What needs to be done? At Country level Address Structural issues - legal, management and operations, technical (including statistical issues) which are all interlinked – adopt a more holistic approach Innovations in processes Develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework Implementing programmes for clearing of backlogs

9. African Centre for Statistics 9 9 What needs to be done? At International/ Regional level Develop regional operational guidelines on all aspects of CRVS in line with UN principles and recommendations Provide platforms for exchanges of learning – good practices and failures Support training activities

10. African Centre for Statistics 10 Current Initiatives and way forward Regional leadership – Tanzania Regional Workshop and Conference of African Ministers of Civil Registration (MCCR) Strengthened Regional Cooperation and Coordination Initiated preparation of operational guidelines CRVS as focus in next five African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) Medium Term Action Plan (endorsed by MCCR) Call to Action based on declaration of MCCR A long term programme based holistic approach

11. African Centre for Statistics 11 Thank you! African Centre for Statistics Visit us at Visit us at http://ecastats.uneca.org/acsweb/