The 11th African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) was held in Libreville, Gabon from 23rd to 25th November 2015 under the theme “Promoting use of Information and Communication Technology solutions in improving CRVS in Africa”.
In the resolution statement of the Symposium, the representatives of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and Civil Registration Authorities (CRAs) of African States committed to establish a Committee of Civil Registrars at the continental level. It was also resolved that each country will set up a mechanism to regularly measure the completeness of vital events registration at all levels of hierarchy based on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems. The participants of the Symposium also committed to review the Technical Strategy on Improving Mortality Statistics in Africa (2016-2020) and thereafter take steps to implement it through their CRVS, censuses and surveys activities.
On the 2nd day of the Symposium, CRVS Digitization Guidebook was launched. The guidebook was developed by the African Regional Core Group on CRVS under the technical leadership of Plan International supported by Economic Commission for Africa and African Development Bank in collaboration with country experts across Africa. Jembi Health Systems, South Africa, provided the technical support as consultant organization. It is an innovative online step-by-step guide including re-usable assets and case studies, which is intended to assist countries in digitising civil registration and vital statistics processes in low resource settings.
The 11th Session of ASSD, the last of the five sessions dedicated to the improvement of CRVS systems in Africa, adopted economic statistics and in particular national accounts as the focus for the next five sessions starting 2016.
The three-day high-level symposium organised by African Development Bank, African Union Commission, Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Population Fund and the government of South Africa and hosted by the Government of Republic of Gabon gathered more than 300 delegates from African countries and various partners and stakeholders.
Demographic and Social Statistics Section