13 Feb 2014

Botswana is considered the best country to benchmark on issues of civil and national registration and vital statistics, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs (MLHA) Mr Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi has said.

Mr Bagopi said when briefing the media on the upcoming 9th African Symposia on Statistical Development (ASSD) scheduled for Gaborone from February 17 to 21under the theme: Promoting the Use of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in support of Advancing Good Governance in Africa.

Civil and national registration and vital statistics, Mr Bagopi said had taken centre stage nationally and globally as an important, viable and continuous source of data to facilitate national development planning and monitoring and evaluation of Millennium Development Goals.

For that reason, labour and home affairs permanent secretary said there was need for an efficient and working system to manage the civil and national registration and vital statistics, which he said comprised births, deaths, marriage, divorce and their associated registrations such as national registration, adoption and annulments. “We need an efficient and working system to manage all these things and to balance our books of account.

For us to have a reliable statistics or data, the relationship between the ministry and the Administration of Justice should be excellent,” he added.

Due to the basis of holding best practices in the area of civil and national registration, Mr Bagopi said Botswana would have an opportunity to make two presentations at the symposium titled; Identity Documents and Services and Conducting Comprehensive Assessment for Civil and National Registration and Vital Events. The two presentations, he said were expected to promote learning and growth by other African countries.

The five days symposium would be co-hosted by the MLHA through the Department of Civil and National Registration and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning through the Statistics Botswana- while the Ministry of Health and Administration of Justice are the key stakeholders.

The ASSD which comprises an institutional membership of 53 African countries is expected to be attended by over 600 delegates from African countries and development partners such as the United Nations agencies, African Union Commission and African Development Bank.
The delegates will include Botswana delegation led by the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Statistics Botswana, Ministry of Health and the Administration of Justice.

For her part, Department of Civil and National Registration director, Ms Neo Lepang said government was committed to ensuring accelerated improvements in the area of civil and national registration. This, Ms Lepang said was one of the many reasons why other African country’s would want to benchmark from Botswana in this area.

In her closing remarks, statistician general, Ms Anna Majelantle said it was important for the countries to keep reliable records and have a proper data management system in place about their citizens, as prove of their existence. These records, Ms Majelantle said would help in development issues and in giving citizens the right to government services. ENDS