02 Feb 2018
Pakistan establishes technical support unit for CRVS improvements within the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform
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The Government of Pakistan has assigned the task of overall coordination of strengthening the CRVS system to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform (M/O PDR). A National CRVS Steering and Coordination Committee was created in 2014, under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister of Planning & Development. The members of this committee are relevant Federal Ministries, provincial departments, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and international partners.

Four National Steering Committee meetings have been organized since its establishment. The M/O PDR conducted rapid and comprehensive CRVS assessments to determine the initial situation. These meetings and studies have led to a number of concrete decisions and recommendations. Given the lack of adequate CRVS institutional arrangements at the federal level, the government was initially unable to keep track of or translate these recommendations into action. To address this issue, the government has recently established the Technical Support Unit for CRVS (TSU-CRVS) to be housed within the M/O PDR. 

The TSU-CRVS will have several specific functions. These include mainly the overall technical coordination, organization and follow-up of Steering Committee meetings, but also to facilitate strategic planning processes and help in capacity building in multiple CRVS disciplines. In addition, TSU- CRVS will assist in the organization of assessment studies, specific surveys and promotion of inter-agency coordination. This unit recently took the lead in organizing the 4th National Steering and Coordination Committee Meeting on January 17, 2018. One of the important outputs of this meeting was the next two-year plan for CRVS promotion (2018-2019). In the coming two years TSU-CRVS will facilitate and work on five major CRVS areas. This will include CRVS awareness/ advocacy seminars, in-depth provincial CRVS assessments, initiation of CRVS legislative reforms, creation of CRVS model districts and the national CRVS strategic planning process.