Vital Statistics Production, Dissemination and Usage in Africa

Jubril Jimoh, Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo, Nigera

Accurate vital statistics are fundamental for effective governance and development in Africa. This paper aims at exploring challenges and prospect of the production, dissemination and usage of vital statistics in African countries. The literature review establishes that most African countries are challenged in their civil registration systems, which are badly developed due to insufficient resources. Analytically, the study adopts quantitative methods with the use of cross national datasets for different countries. The findings reveal that there are still some inconsistencies in term of the quality and extent of data collection. While some countries are experiencing improvements through technology advances and better registration, many are still experiencing incompleteness in data and communication issues. Thus, the recommendations focus on the improvement of investment on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system such as infrastructure and staff development. Importantly, adoption of modern technologies like digital registration platforms and mobile data collection tools will improve data accuracy and accessibility. International support (technical assistance and financial resources), is crucial for building capacity and addressing systemic issues. Imperatively, there is need for multi-stakeholder cooperation from governments and international organizations to enhance the reliability of the vital statistics in policy making for sustainable development across the continent.

Keywords: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Data and Methods, Fertility, Qualitative data/methods/approaches

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