At its inaugural session in February 2009, the Committee on Statistics of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) recognized that, despite recent statistics development, many developing countries in Asia-Pacific encounter major challenges in producing reliable vital statistics. The urgent need for reliable information on births, deaths and causes of death stands in stark contrast to the limited information available in many countries of the region. The improvement of civil registration and vital statistical systems is the only sustainable solution in the long term for obtaining relevant statistics to support reliable assessments and policymaking.

Following the recommendations of the Committee on Statistics, ESCAP Statistics Division and the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO-WPRO) were jointly organized this meeting to bring together national and international experts in the fields of health, civil registration and official statistics to identify specific country needs for support and share information on existing and planned initiatives. Its main objective was to develop, collectively, an action plan for the improvement of vital statistics and vital registration in the Asian and Pacific region.

Questions for country interventions