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Asia-Pacific Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Research Forum

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will organize the first Asia-Pacific CRVS Research Forum to be held from 3 – 4 April 2023. Hosted by ESCAP in Bangkok, this fully online event offers a major research, information sharing, and capacity-building opportunity for participants, who will be able to present at and attend paper presentations and interactive sessions, including networking opportunities.

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Second Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific

The Second Ministerial Conference on CRVS took place from the 16th to 19th November, 2021. It has been the occasion to celebrate progress through the CRVS Decade (2015-2024), identify remaining challenges, emphasize CRVS for sustainable development and promote CRVS as the foundation for legal identity.

Recordings, side-events and preparatory and outcome documents can be consulted on this website.

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Launch of Getting Every One in the Picture - a snapshot of progress midway through the Asian and Pacific Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Decade

In preparation of the Second Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific held from 16 to 19 November 2021, ESCAP has prepared a report on the situation of CRVS systems in the region. By celebrating the progresses and highlighting the challenges remaining to achieving universal registration systems, the report aims at shaping the priorities for the second half of the Decade.

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Resources for civil registration during the COVID-19 pandemic

The current pandemic is disrupting CRVS systems all over the world, but also highlighting why well-functioning systems are more essential than ever. As a result, the UN Statistics Division, the World Health Organization and the UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force developed COVID-19 resources offering guidance for civil registration stakeholders on maintaining CRVS activities.

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Follow CRVS news in Asia and the Pacific by subscribing to the CRVS Insight Newsletter

The CRVS community in Asia and the Pacific has reflected on where it stands at the midpoint of the CRVS Decade (2015-2024) during the Second Ministerial Conference. Following this celebration of progress, many of our partners and member countries are leading actions to fill the remaining gaps.

To learn more about CRVS in Asia and the Pacific, please subscribe to our newsletter, which offers a monthly panorama of CRVS actions throughout the region

Previous editions can be found here.

49th session of the Statistical Commission

The United Nations Statistical Commission, established in 1947, is the highest body of the global statistical system. It brings the chief statisticians of Member States together from around the world. It is the highest decision making body for international statistical activities especially the setting of statistical standards, the development of concepts and methods and their implementation at the national and international levels. The Commission oversees the work of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and is a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC or the Council).

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Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) for Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) defines civil registration as the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population, as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements in each country. Civil registration is the best source of vital statistics since it constitutes the collection of statistics on vital events in a lifetime of a person as well as relevant characteristics of the events themselves and of the person and persons concerned. A well-functioning Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system can significantly improve governance at national and subnational levels and can provide legal and protective advantages to individuals. CRVS system also has statistical advantages over censuses and sample surveys because it provides reliable disaggregated data at any geographical or administrative level, at a relatively low cost. To monitor and measure progress, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) was tasked with developing a global indicator framework. In addition to directly measuring the development and improvement of CRVS, data from complete and accurate CRVS systems can also provide information used to monitor other targets and indicators. CRVS systems in countries also play an important role in effecting progress in other SDG targets and indicators.

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Making everyone visible in Africa

This is one of the advocacy documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

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Counting every death, saving every life: Why deaths data are vital in Africa

The fact sheet is one of the advocacy documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

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Practical Guide on the Improvement of Death Registration and Causes of Death Processes within a Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System

The practical guide on improving death registration and collecting cause of death information is one of the background documents of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. It was developed to help tackle the above-mentioned challenges. It is intended to help countries design and implement the processes best suited for them with regard to death registration starting with notification of death and ending in the compilation and dissemination of death statistics. The guide is expected to help countries systematically take steps to improve their death registration and cause of death information as a part of death registration systems covering both institutional and non-institutional deaths. This document – Practical Guide on the Improvement of Death Registration and Causes of Death Processes within a civil registration and vital statistics – covers the following topics: An introduction to civil registration and vital statistics systems (chapter 1); Legal, organizational and infrastructural requirements for efficient death registration and cause of death systems (chapter 2); Innovations and novel approaches to improve death registration and cause of death registration processes (chapter 3); Business process re-engineering (chapter 4); Strategies for improving death registration and collection of cause of death information (chapter 5); Monitoring and evaluation (chapter 6).

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Equity and Reaching the Most Marginalised: Selected Innovations and Lessons Learned from UNICEF Programmes

This document features nine recent innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF programmes which are illustrative examples of some of our work on equity and reaching the most marginalized. They are presented here to share the experience of UNICEF and its country-level partners in working to reach the most marginalized in order to share lessons we have learned and the good practices we have identified. The cases highlighted in this publication are highly diverse examples – from women’s participation to deliver messages on immunization in Afghanistan to Brazil’s effort to achieve universal birth registration, lessons learned from community engagement in a rural neglected area in Uganda, and the experience from a child-friendly programme implemented in one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam.

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Kyrgyzstan progressing on a national strategy for CRVS

The draft Action Plan of the National Strategy for Registration of Civil Status Acts and Statistics of the Natural Movement of Population is nearing completion in the Kyrgyz Republic. The draft was developed by several ministries and departments working in coordination, including specialists from: the State Registration Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (which includes the Registry Office), the Ministry of Health, and the National Statistics Committee. In preparing the Action Plan, Kyrgyzstan’s already functioning Automated Information System “Civil Registry Office” (AIS “registry office”) was taken into consideration and the Civil Status Acts (2005) has been identified for revision. The Action Plan will now be approved by a decree from the government.

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New Zealand launches online marriage registration

New Zealand has introduced a new online marriage registration service designed to make life easier for the 55 000 New Zealanders who get married each year. Both residents and non-residents may use the online service provided they apply at least three working days in advance. Applicants must then visit a local Registrar of Marriages to finish the process by signing a Statutory Declaration. Obtaining a marriage license is mandatory under New Zealand law and this new initiative will help to streamline this procedure for busy newlyweds.

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Governance and Policy Coordination: The Case of Birth Registration in Peru

This research, the second of two case studies, explores coordination through the lens of civil registration and vital statistics, with particular reference to birth registration in Peru. It focuses on the role that coordination can play in making birth registration function effectively. While the capacity of governments to deliver the function of birth registration is central to this paper, the role that understanding coordination can play in improving public services is examined, especially services for children. The capacity to register the births of children is a long-standing function of governments, and can be seen as a test of government effectiveness. In Peru, backward mapping showed that the trails from local and district registrars to the government registration organization (RENIEC) stopped almost immediately. This seems to point towards the centralized structure and top-down approach of RENIEC; to sustain its achievements to date and to reach the final three per cent of unregistered births it should consider incentivizing and empowering local and community administrations.

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Towards Universal Birth Registration for Guyana: Report of Assessment Legislation, Policy and Practice on Birth Registration

This report, commissioned by the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) and United Nations Children‟s Fund (UNICEF), presents the findings of a two-month research project to examine the situation of birth registration among children in Guyana. The study included a detailed desk review and field research in four of ten administrative regions of Guyana (Regions 1, 2, 7 and 10). The study engaged both Duty Bearers and Rights Holders at the national, regional and community levels. In total 618 households were interviewed and data for 1,770 children were recorded. In addition, the study engaged a wide range of stakeholders at the national level including leading experts and professionals within the government and non-governmental sectors. These include the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has responsibility for birth registration, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Ministry of Health; Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security; Children‟s Legal Aid and regional officials. The study examined various aspects of a child‟s identity rights including: an assessment of (i) legislation, (ii) policy and practice and (iii) attitudes and behaviors of care givers (parents and/or health workers). The major findings are grouped into three key categories; policy, prevalence and practice.