Pacific Island countries celebrate civil registration achievements

Surami Turaga, Fiji's minister of justice, speaks at the Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific on June 26, 2025. Photo courtesy of UN ESCAP

By Diana G. Mendoza

Bangkok – “Cheehoo! Praise God, oue tulou!”  Sonya Talagi, minister for Social Services of Niue, exclaimed before reading the country statement detailing Niue’s transition from paper to digital system of civil registration during the Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific that concluded here on June 26.

Talagi’s sudden gust of joy in the otherwise somber meeting at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok was an expression of success, which she said is also reflected in what other countries in the region have done to improve their systems of birth and death registration.

“As a daughter and custodian of the Blue Pacific Continent, I stand proudly with my Pacific family, rejoicing in our shared achievements,” said Talagi, who shared that Niue’s digital registration system now provides faster, more secure and accessible services.

“Importantly, it preserves our BDM (births, deaths, marriages) records—our treasured Tāoga, our genealogical links that ground our cultural practices and connect us to the lands of our ancestors,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The ministerial conference organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or ESCAP from June 24 to 26 gathered ministers and government officials in charge of health, planning, civil registration, justice, statistics and finance.

Siromi Turaga, Fiji's minister for Justice and acting attorney general, was voted chairperson of the ministerial section of the conference, with the heads of delegations from the Philippines, Vietnam and Vanuatu as vice chairs.

Turaga said Pacific island countries all believe in the aim that “no one is left behind,” in making their civil registration systems that generate “timely and reliable data to inform public health policy, disaster preparedness, social protection, and development planning.”

“They must be resilient, people-centered, and adaptable to the unique challenges faced by Small Island Developing States, including geographic isolation, climate change, and public health emergencies,” he said in his statement.

For Fiji, Tulaga said the government has expanded birth registration services through mobile outreach initiatives in remote islands and outer communities and has digitized registration processes and historical records, integrating national identification and health systems.

“We understand that CRVS must endure and operate effectively in the face of natural disasters, pandemics, and displacement,” he said, “thus, we are integrating CRVS into national disaster risk management strategies to ensure service continuity during crises and enhance death registration and cause-of-death reporting to support health monitoring and response.”

Across the islands, the dominant calls were for digitalization to link citizens to healthcare, education and development even as some countries and states are still in the process of doing so, such as the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

In their statement, the FSM delegation outline the immense “financial and technical demands of establishing electronic linkages between our hospitals, small village and outer island health dispensaries, and our independent CRVS repository centers.”  

In 2014, the ESCAP proclaimed the Asia and Pacific CRVS Decade 2015–2024 and called on its 53 members and nine associate members to commit to a goal that by 2024, all people in the region will benefit from universal and responsive CRVS systems that facilitate their rights to health, education and development.'

The ESCAP said unregistered children under five dropped to 51 million today from 135 million in 2012, and 29 countries now register over 90 percent of births, while 30 countries achieve the same for death registration.

But an estimated 14 million children still do not have their births registered by their first birthday. Each year, approximately 6.9 million deaths go unrecorded, often those occurring outside health facilities or in remote communities.

The conference adopted a Ministerial Declaration to ensure that all births are registered and all deaths are recorded by 2030 and to extend the Decade to align with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals set by 193 UN member states that aim for sustainable prosperity, peace and equality.

Tulaga lauded the united action to close the remaining gaps and “ensure that every person in the Asia Pacific is not left behind but counted, protected and visible in public policy.”

 Subscribe to

our digital

monthly edition