SPC Elected as Chair of the Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Group for 2020-21

CVRS election

The Statistics for Development Division is proud to announce that SPC has been elected unanimously as the Chair of the Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Group at a side event of the 2020 UN statistical Commission meeting in New York. SPC was represented at this meeting by Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Advisor, Ms Gloria Mathenge. 

The Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Group is a group of international and regional organizations coming together to forge stronger alliances in the area of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS). With growing recognition of the value of CRVS to human rights, good governance, and development planning, monitoring and evaluation, there has been renewed interest in strengthening national CRVS systems. CRVS is also emerging as an essential underpinning of the 2030 development agenda. 

The Group aims, among others, to strengthen national CRVS and related systems through coordination and collaboration on global and regional initiatives and exchange of information.

Since the establishment of the group in 2014 under the umbrella of the UN Statistical Commission, SPC has been an active member in exchanging information and collaborating with all others members. The Pacific Community’s (SPC) contribution to the group has been widely recognised and highly appreciated. 

In accepting the Chair on behalf of SPC and the Pacific Region, Ms. Mathenge expressed her sincere gratitude for this nomination and the opportunity given to the Pacific Island region to serve the Group in the capacity of Chair, for the period 2020-2021 represented by SPC. She noted that the nomination came at a crucial time  as the region celebrates the mid of the Asia-Pacific CRVS Decade (2015-2024) which aims to “ get everyone in the picture” through universal registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and other vital events.

Ms. Mathenge acknowledged the Brisbane Accord Group partnership composed of (the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the world Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),  the Pacific Civil Registrars Network (PCRN), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)Bloomberg data for healthFiji National UniversityQueensland University of TechnologyUniversity of Queensland and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator) whose leadership and support has been crucial in advancing the CRVS agenda in the Pacific region, and noted that the SPC would endeavor to communicate the perspectives of the partnership to the group throughout the year.

During the coming year, SPC will endeavour to stay closely in touch with all Global Group Members, to explore opportunities for cross-regional learning and projects that will  advance the development of CTVS systems in the Pacific region.