The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is conducting an Expert Group Meeting on Management and Evaluation of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems. The main objective is to review the draft of the revised Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Management, Operation and Maintenance; to provide further guidance on its content and structure with a view to ensuring that it provides countries with a reference document on the management aspects of civil registration and vital statistics, including evaluation of completeness.

Since the Pacific Vital Statistics Action Plan was first developed in 2011, Pacific countries and territories have made significant improvements in the collection, analysis and reporting of data on births, deaths and causes of death through routine administrative data systems. There has also been a growing recognition of the importance of birth and death registration for human rights, social inclusion, good governance and ultimately as a foundation for data linkage for a whole range of social statistics for development. 

The integration of CRVS and identity management systems has multiple benefits in several sectors. Using a unique identification number to link a national civil register with other databases, such as for migration, employment, social security, taxation, education, and voter rolls, allows the government to maintain up-to-date, reliable information about its population to perform specific administrative tasks relating to taxation, elections, and immigration, among others.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), with support from the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative (D4H), is holding the second workshop of the project to improve the capacity of national Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems in the production and dissemination of vital statistics.