Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Effective Public Sector Governance and Service Delivery in Africa

Abstract

This paper argues that effective public service delivery is fundamental to socio-economic transformation. It emphases the significance of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) in planning and management of public service and administration in Africa but indicates that many national statistics offices and institutions in Africa are weak and their data are less dependable and continually impact negatively the public sector planning and management. The authors contends that members states of the African Union should prioritize strengthening their national statistics offices, domesticate and implement the following normative and other related policy frameworks to overcome the above challenges in Africa: the African charter on statistics and strategy for the harmonization of statistics in Africa, the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS), the African Charter on values and principles of public service and administration, the African charter on values and principles of decentralization, local governance and local development etc., the paper highlighted the element of good governance and argued that vital social statistics and civil registration were critical to operationalize these elements. Finally, the paper established the nexus among civil registration and vital statistics, public service delivery and good governance and concluded with specific recommendations on how to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics for effective public sector governance and service delivery in Africa.