Statistics

Challenges and opportunities

CRVS systems establish legal identity by documenting life events including births and deaths, providing individuals with evidence of their name, age, and family relationships. This documentation is essential for accessing services like healthcare and education and supports rights such as political participation, property ownership, access to formal employment and financial services.

The data from civil registration systems can be used for generating vital statistics critical for understanding health and population trends and can be used to maintain a national civil registry or population database.

Recording life events provides detailed information on populations including on leading causes of death, fertility rates and life expectancy. The information improves government efficiency enabling national and local levels of government to direct policies and activities to where they are most needed. CRVS data is also critical for monitoring the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with 67 of the 232 indicators relying on this information including those on maternal and infant mortality, eliminating poverty, building resilience to climate-related disasters and guaranteeing legal identity for all. However, many countries in Asia and the Pacific have yet to achieve universal registration of vital events, or produce comprehensive vital statistics based on civil registration records.

Our response

The First Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific held in 2014, proclaimed the Asian and Pacific CRVS Decade (2015-2024) and adopted the Ministerial Declaration to "Get Every One in the Picture" which committed countries to strengthening national CRVS systems to achieve the shared vision that all people in Asia and the Pacific will benefit from universal and responsive CRVS systems facilitating the realization of their rights and supporting good governance, health and development.

ESCAP is the secretariat for the Regional Steering Group for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific and the Asia Pacific CRVS partnership, which consists of over 20 development partners supporting countries in the region on improving CRVS systems. In addition, ESCAP supports networks of civil registrars in the Pacific, South Asia and South East Asia.

To support countries in achieving their commitments to CRVS, ESCAP is providing technical assistance in multiple areas, including the production of vital statistics, assessments of registration completeness, business process mapping as well as research focused activities.

ESCAP supports the Regional Steering Group for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific to review countries' progress towards the three goals of the Regional Action Framework for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific and have produced the baseline and midterm reports for the Asia Pacific CRVS Decade.