CRVS Insight

October 2020

Producing population statistics from population registers

Technological advances in the use of population registers for the purposes of administration and service delivery has increased interest in establishing them or developing them further. At the same time, increased demand for timely and disaggregated data, such as for monitoring the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, amplifies interest in population registers as a source of statistical data, especially with regard to up to date and granular population estimates.

ESCAP recently published a Stats Brief on Population Registers: A Key Resource for Producing Vital Statistics, and on Tuesday, 27 October, from 12:30 - 13:30 (Bangkok time), the ESCAP Statistics Division will host a webinar on the importance of population registers and vital statistics. 

This webinar is part of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Stats Café series. Interested participants can register here and join the webinar on Microsoft Teams.

CRVS is bringing joy to people's lives

ESCAP's Statistics Director, Gemma Van Halderen, recently published a blog for the International Statistical Institute 'Statisticians React to the News' series on the importance of CRVS in bringing joy to people's lives. The blog reacted to the news of women in Afghanistan risking their lives to claim their identities and tied the story into the larger narrative about how well-functioning CRVS systems promote gender equality by ensuring women and girls get in the picture.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role of well-designed, implemented and coordinated social protection systems in protecting people throughout their lives and promoting their well-being. The pandemic has also shown that social protection should be a right for all, rather than a privilege for a few. However, many challenges remain in ensuring that the goal of universal social protection comes to fruition in Asia-Pacific.

As a result, ESCAP and the International Labour Organization have produced a new report entitled The Protection We Want: Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific. The new report details the remaining gaps in social protection, provides recommendations on how to broaden social coverage and unlock future prosperity. The report references the importance of CRVS systems.

The report was launched in preparation for the Sixth Session of the Committee on Social Development where an indicator framework for monitoring progress towards the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development was adopted. The framework includes the Sustainable Development Goals indicators 16.9.1 and 17.19.2 on birth and death registration completeness.

As demand for trusted, inclusive, open and reliable data surges in the face of unprecedented challenges, the global community of data experts and users came together from 19 to 21 October for a virtual UN World Data Forum.

For Insight readers, there were a number of sessions relevant to CRVS-related issues. For instance, the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems, housed at the International Development Research Center (IDRC), partnered with Vital Strategies and the World Health Organization to develop a session on counting vital events and monitoring patterns of mortality to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the UN WDF included sessions on The Challenges of Using Administrative Records and Data Integration in Population and Housing Censuses and Digital transformation for better health data and interoperability - Example of the 11th revision of the international classification of diseases (ICD-11).

For those unable to attend, the programme and recorded sessions are still available for viewing here.

IAOS announces 2021 Young Statisticians Prize

The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) has announced the launch of the 2021 IAOS Young Statisticians Prize. This international prize is designed to encourage young statisticians to take an active interest in official statistics and is awarded for the best paper in the field of official statistics written by a young statistician. Asia-Pacific is traditionally very active in the Prize and has successfully secured first, second and third prizes since its inception in 2011. The closing date is 12 February 2021.

UPCOMING EVENTS

ESCAP's Statistics Division will be hosting two rounds of a regional workshop on Measuring SDG Indicators through Population and Housing Census and CRVS Data. The concept note, agenda and more information is available here. 

     Round 1: 27 - 30 October 2020, from 7:00 am - 10:00 am (Bangkok time)

     Round 2: 3 - 6 November 2020, from 11:00 am - 14:00 pm (Bangkok time)

NEW RESOURCES

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has produced a Guide to the Global Digital Tools for COVID-19 Response. The Guide focuses on the primary tools being used globally and addresses the common issues and functions for each tool.

The Center of Excellence for CRVS Systems has produced a series of promotional videos aimed at raising awareness of various CRVS-related issues, including gender equality and improved data quality. Each video is only a few minutes long and can be found on their YouTube page under Why CRVS Systems Matter.

The most recent videos from ESCAP's ongoing Stats Café webinar series can be found by visiting the Asia-Pacific Stats Café Series website. Each webinar is organized in collaboration with relevant development partners and countries and covers a variety of statistics-related topics.

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