Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Ministry of Home Affairs together with other multi sectoral groups responsible for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) held a workshop to review the effectiveness of the system on Wednesday.
The workshop aimed at identifying the strengths and weaknesses in the current CRVS systems and drawing important lessons while also identifying ways through which the weaknesses
can be resolved in line with the international recommendations. The platform was used to explore opportunities that could be used to strengthen the CRVS
systems, review laws on CRVS and their impact on coverage including completeness of registration as well as to ascertain the degree of compliance with international standards.
Director of National Identity and Civil registry (NICR) in the Ministry of Home Affairs Tumelo Raboletsi mentioned that Lesotho has recorded great success of CRVS with
1.8 million Basotho registering on the system.
“It is a commendable achievement since we are only a population of over 2 million,” he said. Raboletsi indicated
that the civil registration system is the preferred source of population data and vital statistics to track progress on achieving various targets of the 2030
agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “In fact, operational CRVS systems contribute to the achievement of 12 out of 17 SDGs. CRVS data is also
needed to measure 67 of the 230 SDG indicators,” he added. The agenda 2063 for Africa, he mentioned, requires the registration of vital events and statistics that
will be used to guide policy and planning, as well as monitor national developments. Raboletsi in an exclusive interview with Informative Newspaper noted the
inability to register occurrences at certain places such as clinics and courts as the main challenge they are currently faced with. “Through this workshop we
became aware of issues we need to improve on. We also need to improve our communication channels and meet with village chiefs, community councils and village health workers,” he added.
In his remarks Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Machesetsa Mofomobe said the objective of the workshop is to pave the way forward together with other branches involved while also strengthening ties of operation to fulfill their common mandate.
