CORE GROUP MEETING HELD 4Th DECEMBER 2014

MINUTES

CORE GROUP MEETING HELD 4th DECEMBER 2014

Participants Organisation Mr. Raj G. Mitra UNECA Mr. Maurice Mubila AfDB Ms. Selamawit Mussie AUC Mr. Peter Mbondji WHO Mr Richmond Tiemoko UNFPA Mr. Genene Bizuneh AfDB/UNECA Ms. Mirrka Tuulia UNICEF Ms. Nicoleta Panta Plan International Ms. Hephzibah Beulah Plan International Mr. Edward Duffus Plan International Mr. Gilbert Habaasa UNECA Ms. Meaza Bekele UNECA Ms. Maria Isabel Cobos UNSD Mr. Srdjan Mrkic UNSD Ms. Gloria Mathenge UNECA Absent with apology Ms. Milen Kidane UNICEF ESARO Ms. Anneke Schmider WHO Mr. Osman Sanko Indepth Network

Agenda 1. Memorandum of Understanding for member agencies of the regional Core group 2. Progress in preparation for the third conference of ministers responsible for civil registration

a. Concept Note of the ministerial conference b. Agenda for the Expert Group Meeting c. Invitations to the conference d. Sponsorship of Ministers of Health and Ministers of Civil Registration e. Sponsorship of Civil Registrars and Directors of Statistics g. Preparatory mission to the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire h. Documents to be shared by Core group members at the minister’s conference i. List of recommended persons to be invited to the Conference j. Conference communication plan

1 Agenda Discussion and Action points Memorandum of Understanding: A draft of the Memorandum of understanding (MoU) was shared with core group members on 21st October 2014. All member agencies/institutions were requested to provide the feedback on the document to the secretariat as soonest as possible

 Plan international and the Indepth Network have already shared their comments on the MoU. Other core group members are requested to share their comments by 8th December 2014  The AfDB, UNICEF and UNHCR reported that the document is still under review in their respective offices

Concept Note for the ministerial conference: The secretariat, in collaboration with UNICEF has developed the first draft of the concept note which was shared with the Core group for their inputs on 3rd December 2014

 Some members felt that existing draft of the concept note is very lengthy. The secretariat should consider reducing the text if possible  It is also important to prepare a shorter version of the concept note (preferably one pager) for communication purposes. Plan international will support the core group in the development of the concept note brief  Core group members shall review the concept note and share their comments and inputs with the secretariat by 8th December 2014

Agenda for the Experts Group meeting: The first draft of the agenda for the Experts meeting was shared with the core group for their input. The following issues were raised

 Core Group members allotted common sessions will work jointly in preparing for the sessions. The sessions could be delivered in the form of presentations or engaging subject matter experts as speakers.  In alignment to the agenda of the meeting of experts, the concept note should Include a Section titled “vital statistics for, development planning

2 and monitoring”  Session b and d of the agenda are similar-Session b should be re-titled to “strategies to achieve a complete and efficient CRVS system”  The grouping of countries in session b and d will be conducted at a later stage. However there will be four break away groups: two for English speaking countries and two for French speaking countries. There are also intentions to ensure that countries with more developed systems are grouped together with those with lesser developed system for experience sharing purposes  It is be advisable to have selected countries (three to four) that have already undertaken assessments to present in the plenary session while the rest will present during the break –away session  Plan international, UNICEF and UNHCR will discuss bilaterally and agree on a common approach for handling the session on civil registration and human rights. o Plan international however proposed to have a panel and a top notch speaker from the human rights council to present a recently released report co-authored by plan international and UNICEF and also have youth voices speak during this session o There was also a proposal to have a panel with three different speakers addressing the different themes and a moderator for the panel  The speakers of different sessions should not be limited to core group members. African experts could be invited as speakers during these sessions  The secretariat was asked to provide core group members with a list of the focal persons that will be engaged in organizing different sessions

3 including the group leader/coordinator.

Invitations to the conference: Invitation letters for the Chiefs of civil registration and national statistics offices have already been sent out. The invitation letter for the ministers is yet to be signed by the chair of the African Union. However, a note verbale has already been sent to the embassies of all African countries.

 The secretariat will share a copy of all the invitation letters with core group members;  Invitations to the Healt Ministers have to be sent by AUC; secretariat will prepare the darft

Sponsorship of ministers responsible for civil registration, ministers for health, Director generals of statistics and civil registration offices

 AfDB will sponsor the ministers responsible for civil registration  WHO will discuss with the secretariat on the sponsorship of the ministers for health  ECA will sponsor 30 of these experts.  UNFPA will support the sponsorship of country experts as well as young statisticians of the ISIbalo programme  Following the experience of the last ministerial conference, the UNFPA and UNICEF regional offices will sign a joint letter that will be sent to their country offices, recommending the sponsorship of the Chiefs of CR and NSOs to the conference  UNFPA will sponsor a few Young Statisticians

Documents to be shared by core group at the conference: Core group members were requested at the last meeting to share with the secretariat the list of documents that they would like to distribute at the ministerial conference.

 Core group members should share with the secretariat the list of documents that they would like to distribute at the conference

List of recommended participants: Core group members were requested at the last meeting to send to the secretariat the names and addresses of the persons that they

4 recommend to be invited to the ministerial conference.

 Core group members will share with the secretariat the list of persons that they recommend to be invited to the ministerial

Conference communication plan: The meeting agreed that this item will be discussed bilaterally between the communication focal team and the secretariat

 UNFPA will provide the name of their focal point to join the communication team

Preparatory mission to the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire

 Host country agreement will be signed in Addis Ababa in a week’s time. The delegation from Cote d’Ivoire are expected to come to Addis Ababa for this purposes.  The secretariat is also planning for a preparatory mission to cote d’Ivoire in early January 2015