THE FIRST conference for African ministers responsible for civil registration was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from August 13 to 14. The theme of the conference was Improved civil status information for efficient public administration and generation of vital statistics for national development and MDS (Millennium Development Goals) monitoring in Africa.
South Africa was represented by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The conference was an outcome of the recommendations of the regional workshop on civil registration and vital statistics systems convened in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June last year.
The conference was preceded by a three-day experts' group meeting, that consisted of officials from national civil registration offices, national statistical offices, regional training institutions, selected regional and international organisations and academic and research institutions. South Africa was represented by officials from the Department of Home Affairs and Statistics SA.
The ministers' meeting resolved to take appropriate policy measures that would facilitate the implementation of plans, programmes and initiatives for the reform and improvement of civil registration and vital statistics; to intensify awareness-raising campaigns on the procedures and importance of civil registration; and to adopt laws and policies that ensure timely and compulsory registration of vital events occurring in African countries.
The resolutions that the home affairs ministers took, augur well for the production of population statistics on the continent. In fact, these resolutions are important as they build on those of the 2006 meeting of African statisticians that was called by the then minister of finance, Trevor Manuel.
In that meeting African statisticians committed to undertaking censuses in their countries in this, the 2010 global round of population and housing censuses. Only Somalia will not be undertaking a census in this round.
This is a far cry from when a third of the population of the continent was not counted in the 2000 global round of population and housing census. The commitment by ministers of home affairs to civil registration is bound to change the landscape of statistical production on the continent for the better.
As regards to civil registration, South Africa has a fairly sophisticated system compared with a good part of the continent and collaboration between home affairs and Stats SA is improving.
Last week I published the annual statistical release on recorded live births, which is based on the data from the national birth registration system at the Department of Home Affairs. The results showed that a total of 1.25 million births was registered in 2009, 70 percent of which occurred in 2009 and 30 percent in 2008 and earlier. Stats SA estimated that by the end of April this year, the birth registration system in the country had covered 91.4 percent of births that occurred last year and that nearly all births in 2008 were registered.
Trends in the registration of births in South Africa are largely affected by the demand for birth certificates for accessing social services and for applying for identity documents from the age of 16.
The results indicate that since 1998, when registration of births occurred at hospitals as a consequence of joint administrative agreement between home affairs, health and Stats SA, there has been a consistent increase in the number of births registered within the year of birth. This increase accelerated when the child support programme was initiated.
So rapid was the increase in registrations within the year of birth that by 2005 births registered within the year of birth were in the majority. Before then, there were more late registrations. South Africa's birth registration system has improved but there is room for improvement.
The African ministers responsible for civil registration acknowledged the importance of civil registration for public policy, good governance, human rights and as a basis for reliable statistics.
Among others, the ministers adopted the recommendation of setting up a high level co-ordination committee for civil registration and vital statistics to improve the functioning of the systems, as well as awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of civil registration, particularly in the rural areas.
Pali Lehohla is the statistician-general for South Africa and the head of Statistics South Africa.