Africa to strengthen national civil registration and vital statistics systems
02 November 2010
Fifty-three African countries unanimously passed a resolution to prioritize the strengthening of their national civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems. This course of action was agreed at the 6th Africa Symposium for Statistics Development held in Cairo from 31 October to 2 November. The United Nations Statistics Division, World Health Organization, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Development Bank, Statistics South Africa and Health Metrics Network, who participated in the meeting, were asked to work with countries to adapt existing standards to utilize mobile and related information technology platforms, to strengthen CRVS systems across the region. Forty million births and 40 million deaths, the majority of which are in Africa, go unrecorded each year.