The last 2024 quarterly meeting for the Civil Registration Professionals of South Asia (CR8) took place virtually on 25 November 2024 and offered the opportunity to share updates on key areas of work and discuss preparations in the lead up to the Third Ministerial Conference. Specific themes for experience sharing for Q4 2024 meeting were inequality assessment, waiving fees for birth registration, and CRVS advocacy. Inequality assessment has been identified as an area of interest since the third CR8 meeting in Dhaka, 2023, and it remains a crucial implementation step under RAF that requires more attention and resources. 

Inequalities can be assessed using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods, and the data for the assessment can be derived from primary, secondary or combined sources depending on available resources. In addition to inequality assessment, addressing barriers to registration and increasing advocacy efforts among targeted population groups are also priority areas of work for our region. Following experience sharing, ESCAP and UNICEF briefed members of CR8 on preparations for the Third Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific and for the South Asia sub-regional forum to be held on 23 June 2025. 30 participants attended and engaged actively during the virtual meeting. For more information on the meeting including recording, please refer to the following link.