“There is need for political commitment”

Interview of Chukwudozie Zigbalike, Acting Director, African Center for Statistics, ECA.

Q: What is the general situation of civil registration in Africa today?

A: Civil registration systems do not function properly in most African countries.

With the exception of the small island countries, only three to four countries are recorded to have systems of registration that are complete and that meet the standards of universality as set by the United Nations.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa, contributes to the second highest proportion of unregistered births across the world.

Death registration lags far behind birth registration coverage in most countries. The collection of cause-of-death information is similarly in a deplorable state.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that of the 46 member States in African region, only one country can provide high-quality cause-of-death data (Mauritius), with another three able to provide low or medium-quality data (Seychelles, South Africa and Zimbabwe).

African countries have however since 2010 embarked on a comprehensive work programme to improve their systems and such is expected to yield significant improvements in the near future.

How is the rate of coverage in certain countries reaching 90% while some countries barely cover 20%?

Birth and death registration coverage varies widely across different African countries. The reasons for the differences in levels of performance are similarly variable and largely depend on the degree of national commitment towards improving the systems, the existence of adequate legislation, sufficient infrastructure for registration processes, social acceptance, the value placed on the registration processes by the public and importantly the ability of the public to register vital events.

At an individual level, there are significant barriers to registration of vital events across various populations which ultimately contribute to poor performing systems.

These include: poverty (the costs of registration versus the economic status of individuals, cultural beliefs and practices, social exclusion, inadequate coverage of registration offices and staff in remote and rural areas, lack of knowledge about registration, and disability and discrimination among others.

Q: What concrete solutions are ECA and its partners proposing?

A: Political commitment towards the improvement of CRVS systems is the first fundamental requirement for achieving improvement in CRVS systems in the region. This has been successfully advanced by the biennial gatherings of ministers responsible of civil registration, who have over their past two conferences reiterated commitments towards supporting CRVS improvement in their countries.

The second prioritized intervention is that all countries should undertake comprehensive assessments of the civil registration and vital statistics systems and to develop national plans of action that are based on the findings of the assessment.

The assessments are currently the priority for the region and are critical to ensuring that all countries identify the bottlenecks and strengths held by their systems and that they build on this knowledge in their improvement efforts.

Q: What type of support will ECA bring in Africa to improve the situation?

A: ECA serves as the secretariat of the Africa Programme on Accelerated improvement of civil registration and vital statistics (APAI-CRVS). The secretariat is tasked with providing guidance and technical support to

African countries in the development of their systems. In this regard, the secretariat supports countries through the development of regional guidelines, standards and manuals on various aspects of the system and secondly providing onsite technical support to countries upon request.

Q: How do you plan to promote the authenticity of statistics generated from civil registrations?

A: ECA promotes the adoption and application of the United Nations principles and recommendations for vital statistics systems. These principles provide comprehensive guidance on generating authentic statistics from civil registration systems.