The Third Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration was held on 12th to 13th February 2015 in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire on the theme ‘Promoting the use of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Support of Good Governance in Africa.’’ The Conference was preceded by be a three-day Expert Group Meeting (on 9th to 11th February 2015) that deliberated on technical matters arising from the theme of the conference and engaged in the preparation of draft resolutions and recommendations and other technical materials to be presented to the Ministerial forum.
The Conference was held under the auspices of African Union Commission (AUC) with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which functions as the Secretariat of the African Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS). The other member-organizations of the CRVS Regional Core Group namely, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO),United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Plan International, INDEPTH network and the Secretariat of the African Symposium on Statistical Development represented by Statistics South Africa also supported the Conference.
The Conference convened African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration, as well as Ministers of Health, Heads of Civil Registration Offices, Heads of National Statistics Offices (NSOs), representatives of regional and international organizations, representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society Organisations among others.
The overall objective of the conference was to mobilize member States to generate authentic civil registration records in realization of human and civil rights, identity management and efficient service delivery, and production of vital statistics for planning and monitoring development in the context of good governance. The conference also reviewed the progress made by the APAI-CRVS in the implementation of the regional Medium Term Plan and the resolutions of the previous two Conferences of Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration.