An initial meeting of the SEA registrars will be organized with support of the Philippines Statistics Authority on 7-9 February 2023 in Manila and will be part of the CRVS month in the Philippines. Multiple partners are supporting the event including ESCAP, Vital Strategies, Global Health Advocacy Incubator, UNICEF, UNFPA, and possible others.  The objectives of the meeting are: 1. To explore and possibly initiate the establishment of a network for civil registrars in South-East Asia 2. To facilitate knowledge exchange and potential collaboration on issues of concern of civil registrars in the region 3. To document existing practices in the region and common challenges The meeting will provide a professional forum for civil registrars to discuss priority areas that are of common concern to the civil registrars in the region as well as the potential terms of references and organizational setup of a SEA civil registrars network. For each of the priority areas a draft background paper will be developed by ESCAP and UNICEF in preparation for the meeting. The papers will be shared with participants and inputs from the meeting will support finalization of the papers.

The report: Civil Registration in South East Asia: Legislation, Digitization and Inequality (2023)