Civil registration professionals are necessary for achieving universal registration and certification of vital events. They also play a key role in achieving the global goal of a legal identity for all including, first and foremost, birth and death registration but also other vital registrations such as marriage, divorce, adoption, and migration, among many others necessary throughout the course of a person’s life.

Under the ‘Get every one in the picture’ initiative, the civil registries also play a fundamental role of achieving Asia-Pacific goals aimed at improving civil registration systems over the next decade. Consequently, civil registration professionals among the eight South Asian countries developed an informal network for sharing information, lessons learned, and good practices for strengthening civil registration. Serviced by the United Nations Children's Fund Regional Office for South Asia (UNICEF-ROSA) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the professional network fosters coordination and integration of professionals' inputs and ideas into the implementation of the Asia Pacific Regional Action Framework for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.