(Newsletter: CRVS Insight March 2020)

In an effort to raise awareness for the upcoming Ministerial Conference in October, ESCAP's Statistics Director, Gemma Van Halderen, recently attended both "Connecting Vital Events Registration and Gender Equality" (ConVERGE) in Ottawa, as well as the 51st Statistical Commission in NY. During each event, Ms. Van Halderen emphasized the progress being made in Asia-Pacific, as well as the remaining challenges and expected outcomes for the Ministerial Conference.

ConVERGE, hosted by the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems, UNFPA and Open Data Watch, assessed global progress being made in meeting gender-related targets and focused discussions on using CRVS systems to integrate gender analysis across CRVS improvement activities.

The 51st Statistical Commission focused its CRVS discussions heavily on civil registration as a foundation for legal identity, as well as using data generated from CRVS systems to measure the progress of SDG indicators. Civil registration was also discussed under the agenda item on health statistics.