Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System provides guidance on establishing a functioning system for collecting, processing and disseminating vital statistics; improving sources of vital statistics, primarily the functioning of the civil registration system and its components; and the role of complementary sources of vital statistics, such as population censuses, household surveys and public-health records. The document was prepared by the UN Statistics Division.

The International Statistics Program has developed a training course CRVS systems to provide information to epidemiologists, statisticians, demographers, and others working in public health about vital statistics data gathered from a national civil registration system. Even though CRVS systems may differ somewhat from country to country, there are internationally accepted principles and recommendations for national CRVS systems.

This toolkit provides a guide for analysing existing CRVS laws to identify legal obstacles and opportunities. Even though CRVS systems should serve the same principal functions, every country has different approaches based on its legal structure, history, and culture. Countries also differ in their CRVS organization, implementation, processes, scale, partners, and capacities. This toolkit attempts to provide a standardized methodology to capture and evaluate this range of approaches and needs.

The CRVS eLearning course comprises 13 technical modules that aim to train policy-makers, public and civil servants, researchers, development practitioners and civil society organizations using practical tools and approaches to building and maintaining CRVS systems that are linked to identity management systems and tailored to local contexts. The World Bank Group coordinated the development of the eLearning course, with contributions from partners including CDC, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and D4H.

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The CRVS Knowledge Gateway Learning Centre consolidates available knowledge, tools, guidelines and standards, providing countries with a convenient resource to help accelerate their CRVS improvement strategies. This Learning Centre comprises the most advanced techniques and knowledge from global experts in CRVS systems and is continuously updated.

The CRVS Knowledge Gateway Learning Centre consolidates available knowledge, tools, guidelines and standards, providing countries with a convenient resource to help accelerate their CRVS improvement strategies. This Learning Centre comprises the most advanced techniques and knowledge from global experts in CRVS systems and is continuously updated.

This handbook offers specifications and practical examples for the improvement and/or establishment of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems. It presents model organizational and legal arrangements, as well as ideal descriptions, processes and protocols that are considered the gold standard.

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The Ten CRVS Milestones framework has been developed to help policy-makers, managers and other CRVS stakeholders understand CRVS systems, capturing complexity by focusing on the 10 milestones that must be achieved in any CRVS system. Each milestone summarizes the actions that community, local and national stakeholders must take to ensure that every birth or death is officially registered and included in country vital statistics systems.

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