The Africa Symposia on Statistical Development in Brief 

The Africa Symposium on Statistical Development is a forum created to address a concern by African statisticians in a gathering in Yaounde, Cameroon in the year 2005.Taking place against a background of poor performance of African countries in undertaking population census previously and a report that painted an unimpressive picture of the continent’s  state of readiness for the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses, it was decided that something needed to be done to improve the situation going forward. A fortification meeting was subsequently held in Cape Town in 2006 which ushered the ASSD as a standing platform with an initial objective of mobilising all African countries to ensure that they carried censuses in the 2010 round covering the period 2005- 2014.

The Yaounde meeting was held in the wake of a report by the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan to the General Assembly in September 2005 that showed glaring data gaps in monitoring progress made in Africa on the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). The main resolution of the first ASSD in Cape Town meeting was the call to Africa’s National Statistics Offices to re-enforce the need for the African statistical community to meet on an annual basis to engage actively in the ongoing revision of the Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses (PHCs) to share best practices in the planning and management, execution, processing, analysis and dissemination of census data.

Amplifying and complementing this resolution was the decision of the 39^th Session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development held in Ougadougou in May 2006 that assistance should be provided to countries emerging out of conflict. Furthermore, governments were called upon to make resources available for successful census taking. In carrying out these resolutions, the ASSD became an important platform for the African statistical community in its desire to realise unprecedented statistical development efforts on the continent. Five ASSDs were subsequently held in Kigali (Rwanda), Accra (Ghana), Luanda (Angola), Dakar (Senegal) and Cairo (Egypt). The Ministers responsible for CRVS in Africa in their first conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2010 implored African statisticians to address yet another problem bedevilling the continent: CRVS.

Realising that the inaugural mandate of the ASSD had almost been accomplished, with over 20 countries having already undertaken a census and most of the remaining ones having made concrete commitments to do so, the Heads of National Statistics Offices adopted a resolution at the 6^th ASSD held in Cairo, Egypt to implement the CRVS Ministers call.

The 8^th ASSD held in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire in November 2012 was the second of the five sessions of the ASSDSs focusing on CRVS following the first of this kind held in Cape Town, South Africa in January 2012. These two symposia and the subsequent three will stand apart from the first six in that they would have expanded the pool of participants to include agencies and partners that were previously not part of the ASSD. The expansion has been necessitated by the multi-pronged nature of CRVS. Participants are now drawn from non-statistics ministries and partners such as those dealing with registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc. While the focus of the ASSD will be on CRVS until 2015, monitoring of population censuses and provision of inter-country support in this respect remains a key strategic imperative for the ASSD.

The 8^th ASSD followed on the heels of the 2^nd CRVS Ministers Conference held in Durban, South Africa in September 2012. The 2^nd CRVS Ministers Conference  concluded with the adoption of a statement urging (i) Member States to undertake in-depth assessment of the state of their national civil registration systems and develop a strategic and action plans for improving CRVS; (ii) the Secretariat and other partner organisations to continue to provide technical support to reinforce the capacity of Member States in CRVS operations and management through technical advisory services, workshops, training and provision of guidelines, (iii) Member States and development partners to reinforce the CRVS Secretariat at UNECA with adequate resources and appropriate staff complement to enable it carry out its mandate as recommended by the first Ministerial conference; and invited (iv) African Ministers of Health to join us in view of the important role of the health sector in the delivery of civil registration services to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach in addressing the challenges of establishing CRVS systems in Africa; (v) relevant national universities, regional research and training institutions to respond to the knowledge demand in improving death registration and causes of death certification in countries with the support from development partners; and urged (vi) the African Union to allocate the necessary financial and technical resources in support of the CRVS development agenda;

The ministers also reaffirmed their commitment to make the conference a dynamic forum that is used to discuss policy and strategic issues related to improving CRVS systems in Africa and support the AUC in its implementation processes.

In a nutshell, the Ministers conference main output is what could be referred to as a six-point call to action summarised in the table below.

Ministers Call to Action

The 9^th ASSD was the third of ASSDs focusing on CRVS and was hosted by the Republic of Botswana jointly headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs and the Statistician-General of Statistics Botswana and drawing membership from all government departments and key development partners. The theme of the 9th ASSD “  “Promoting Use of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Support of Good Governance”   was focused on use of CRVS systems in promoting good governance.

The 10^th ASSD

The 10^th ASSD marks a special milestone in the revitalization of statistics in Africa. Particularly, the past ten years have witnessed a revival of statistics in Africa through the setting up and resuscitation of pertinent statistical forums and initiatives driven led by various stakeholders such as the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission and others. The revitalization voyage has been captured in a book by Professor Ben Kiregyera which will be launched at the 10^th ASSD itself. The symposium will also mark the 10 year celebration of the African Statistics Journal.

The theme of the 10^th ASSD will therefore be: “A Decade of Statistical Development; Revolutionising Censuses and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics towards Africa Agenda 2063”.

The overall objective of the 10^th ASSD is to rally member States around a united statistical programme aimed at supporting the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Africa Agenda 2063 vision. The symposium will focus on four topical areas of statistics: data revolution, the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses, the 2020 Round of Population and Housing Censuses and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.

The 10^thASSD will be hosted by the Republic of Uganda which has constituted a National ASSD Committee (NASSDC) headed by the Executive Director of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and drawing membership from all government ministries and key development partners. The NASSDC is supported by an International Planning Committee which includes Statistics South Africa as the ASSD Secretariat, the ECA as the CRVS Secretariat, the African Development Bank, African Union Commission, United Nations Population Fund United Nations Children Fund, World Health Organisations and other partners. The ASSD also receives support from local and international sponsors who also exhibit their products and also participate in the statistical discussions.

The strategic leadership of the ASSD rests with the chairperson. Mr Pali Lehohla, South Africa’s Statistician-General and Head of Statistics South Africa is the chairperson of the ASSD. He is supported by a Secretariat which is hosted by Statistics South Africa.

For 10^th ASSD related queries contact:

ASSD Secretariat:

Ms. Nwabisa Maya

Statistics South Africa

Tel: +27 12 310 2126

Mobile: +27 84 631

Fax to email: 0862413147

Email: nwabisam@statssa.gov.za

Host Coordinator

Ms Norah Madaya

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Kampala, Uganda

Email: norah.madaya@ ubos.org  or  madaya.norah @ gmail.com