Ministerial conference of African civil registration opens

South African President Jacob Zuma opened a ministerial conference on civil registration in the continent, saying the work is of vital importance in this age of globalisation and interdependence among countries.Civil registration serves more than merely identifying nationality by impacting on broad developmental programs of planning and monitoring of education, health, social security and unemployment, Zuma said.It is imperative that citizens of all of Africa’s 54 countries be registered and this can only be accomplished through efficient civil and registration systems, Zuma said in his opening address at the second conference of African Ministers for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics held in Durban, the KwaZulu Natal province.The two-day conference is coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC), African Development Bank and the South African government.It is being chaired by South African Home Affairs Minister and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.Participants also include representatives of the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) , United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization.The conference is being attended by 54 African ministers responsible for civil registration and statistics and 500 delegates from African countries including senior civil registration technical experts, development partners, young statisticians and professional associations.Zuma told the delegates that the most vulnerable people in Africa remain unseen and not counted.“They practically do not exist. There are still people on the African continent who are born and die without ever leaving a trace in any legal record of their existence. This is a phenomenon that has come to be known as the ‘scandal of invisibility’,” Zuma said.The first conference on civil registration and vital statistics was held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in 2010.