Botswana hosts ninth Africa Symposia

Kgomotso Molelekeng | Wednesday February 19, 2014 17:36

 

Under the theme, ‘Promoting use of civil registration and vital statistics in support of advancing good governance in Africa’, the panel discussion started on Monday at Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) and will end on Friday.

The panellists are Professor Ben Kiregyera, Pali Lehlola - a statistician general of Stats South Africa (SA), deputy director general responsible for managing the office of the deputy president in SA, Busani Ngcaweni and Professor Ntonghanwah Forcheh from the University of Botswana.  Speaking at the official opening of the debate, Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe said that this year’s symposium comes at a time when Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) throughout the world is gaining profound prominence.

He said the theme emphasises the obvious relationship between civil registration and governance. “The basic tenet here is the administrative capability to have in place credible CRVS that enable countries to accord some key rights to their citizenry. These include the right to a name, the right to vote and the right to own property, among others,” he said.

He explained that various studies have shown the relationship between governance and poverty, such that poor people are often direct victims of inadequate governance.

He said their non-registration excludes them from public programmes, deprives them of access to productive assets and social services, including combating statelessness during and post conflict situations. Therefore, he said, a complete CRVS is a precursor for effective governance and any impediments to it must be strongly combated.  He further acknowledged that as a continent, Africa has noted and acknowledged the unique nature of the challenges faced by CRVS. He said Africa accepted and took the responsibility to adapt tailor-made solutions to varying challenges. “We recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach cannot produce the desired impact,” he said. Kedikilwe added that Botswana has worked tirelessly to develop its legal and institutional framework, human infrastructure and registration processes.  “Our births and deaths data reported by health facilities provide estimates of births and mortality rates which are consistent with those revealed by our censuses,” he said. 

He added that it is very beneficial to link relevant hospital information with CRVS systems for regular monitoring and evaluation of CRVS completeness.  He said: “The CRVS completeness will enable regular estimates of demographic indicators during the inter-census periods for population policy implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation.” He said that in November 2013 government in collaboration with partners such as United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and African Development Bank (ADB) began a comprehensive assessment for CRVS. 

The assessment was started with a view to come up with a five-year strategic plan to guide implementation, monitor and evaluate systems, determine timeliness of recording vital events, resources required and responsibilities for stakeholders.    ASSD’s inaugural objective is to strengthen collaboration in the mobilisation of African countries to conduct population census in the 2010 round of population and housing censuses (RPHCs).  The first six ASSDs focused on the 2010 RPHCs in the period of 2006 to 2010.