A new partnership was signed on July 17 between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam and Vital Strategies as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative to improve Vietnam’s civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS).

The programme will be carried out from July 2020 to March 2021 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice in collaboration with relevant ministries and agencies. 

It aims at supporting the Government’s efforts to improve the quality of birth and death registration, including causes of death in Vietnam, through strengthening CRVS governance, assessing CRVS system functioning, conducting CRVS legal and regulatory reviews, developing plans to improve the assignment of causes of death using internationally recognised standards, improving the monitoring and evaluation framework, and producing vital statistics reports.

Philip Setel, Vice President of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Improvement Programme at Vital Strategies, said permanent and compulsory CRVS systems are critical to ensuring basic rights to the population of Vietnam. As an implementing partner in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, Vital Strategies staff have collaborated with more than 20 local and national governments to support country-driven priorities for civil registration, and to strengthen CRVS systems through technical assistance and catalytic funding.

Director of the Department of Civil Registration, Nationality and Attestation under the Ministry of Justice Nguyen Cong Khanh said the close collaboration and exchange of CRVS data among different relevant agencies will improve data quality and consistency, increase completeness of registration, and reduce costs.

“By improving the CRVS system, we aim at helping Vietnam to implement its commitments to the Declaration of the Ministerial Conference and the Framework for Action in Asia Pacific on CRVS for the period 2015-2024”, said UNFPA Chief Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara.