20100814
xinhuanet

ADDIS ABABA-- African ministers responsible for civil registration on Friday met at the United Nations Economic Commission For Africa (UN-ECA) Conference Center here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the first African Conference on Civil Registration.

The first Conference of African Ministers which is being held for two consecutive days was preceded by a preparatory meeting of experts beginning from Tuesday.

It has brought together over 40 African ministers to discuss and endorse important resolutions and recommendations on legal, administrative, and statistical issues that touch every African living in and outside the continent, said Mthuli Ncube, vice president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

According to Mthuli, AfDB in collaboration with UN-ECA has been engaged on a number of landmark activities aimed at improving civil registration systems in African countries.

"The bank is fully involved in the development of a regional medium-term plan for reforming and improving Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems which was discussed by the experts is being submitted for consideration and eventual endorsement by this conference; and through its statistical capacity building program, the bank is assisting African countries to incorporate issues of civil registration and vital statistics in their national statistical development strategies," said Mthuli.

"There are multifaceted challenges and problems of improving civil registration and vital statistics systems in our countries. But we believe that by harnessing the current information technology, Africa can within a relatively short period significantly improve their civil registration systems," he added.