(Newsletter April 2023)

A meeting of the Pacific Civil Registrars Network was held on 20-22 March 2023 in Suva, Fiji. The meeting was co-organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Pacific Community with support from other development partners. The meeting provided a professional forum for civil registrars to discuss priority areas that are of common concern in the region. with a particular focus on digitization and climate change and CRVS. Participants included professionals in civil registration from 17 Pacific countries. The objectives of the meeting were to:

1. Share progress and challenges in CRVS improvement efforts and identify common challenges
2. Facilitate knowledge exchange and potential collaboration on issues of concern of civil registrars in the region
3. Provide capacity building for sustainable institutional development leading to improved decision-making processes  
4. Document existing practices in the Pacific

The meeting also featured status updates from participating countries on their existing CRVS challenges and CRVS improvement efforts. Presentations covered improving registration completeness, national coordination, digitization efforts, including data storage and protection, and key challenges. 

Additionally, participants of the meeting benefited from field visits to registration facilities in Suva to see how the registration practices work on the ground.

The meeting documents are available from https://sdd.spc.int/events/2023/03/pcrn-2023-meeting