This is a very controversial and political question. Generally, certification is something voluntary, while licencing is regulated by governments. Certification generally means some agency warrants you meet its standards; licencing generally means that to claim to practice a certain profession requires a government licence, often administered through a professional organization. In theory both are supposed to help judge if someone is capable of doing certain jobs.
Licencing isn't currently required for computing professionals; some people would like to see some jobs require it, as with established branches of engineering. Others don't like government intervention, and/or believe many people who wouldn't get licenced are perfectly competent.
Computing professionals in the USA have had a certification program for years, administered by the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (708-299-4227), a meta-organization with representatives from ACM, IEEE-CS, ADAPSO, ICCA, IACE, AIM, DPMA, AISP, COMMON, ASM, CIPS, and AWC. There are three certificates aimed at different broad types of practitioner, and many areas of specialization. To keep a certificate requires at least 40 hours of continuing education each year; credit can also be obtained for self-study, teaching, publication, etc. 
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