African states urged to decentralise civil registration services - A continental symposium on statistics has called for decentralization of civil registration service in Africa down to the lowest administrative units to make the service more accessible to the public.

The 7th African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) held from 18 to 20 January in Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme, “Improving Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Institutional and Human Infrastructure” discussed the challenges and experiences of African countries in the area of statistics.

The symposium, which ended late Friday, also discussed the key role statistics in general and civil registrations as well as vital statistics in particular, play in development endeavours.

Civil registration and vital statistics deal with the recording of major events in human life such as birth, marriage, divorce and death.

Participants of the 7th ASSD emphasized that due to a number of reasons including the colonial ideology and its legacy, poverty as well as lack of awareness and capacity, many African countries do not have a proper and regular registration of these vital events. This has led to poor planning and implementation of development such as health, education and other basic services.

Accordingly, the symposium recommended in its resolution that “Governments improve the availability of civil registration services by devolving civil registration structures and service points down to the lowest administrative unit and as near as possible to families and communities... including in rural and remote areas.”

The lack of suitable records and evidence of vital events to determine the civil status of individuals in many African countries has hindered the monitoring of the implementations of “international and regional human rights instruments and provisions” mainly for women, children and vulnerable groups, according to the resolution.

The Symposium also recommended for civil registration service to be integrated into public services offered by institutions such as court administration as well as health, education and national identification organizations as one way of devolving the service.

The 7th ASSD also suggested to countries to review their laws relating to civil registration and vital statistics to align them to the principles and recommendations of the United Nations.

Pana 22/01/2012