The Brisbane Accord Group in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division convened a Regional Meeting on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics for the Pacific Islands, from 22 to 25 February 2016. The meeting was hosted by the Pacific Community and held at the SPC conference centre in Noumea, New Caledonia.

This meeting brought together participants from the civil registration, statistics and health sectors from across the region and is an important opportunity to share experiences and lessons learnt, and to ensure that the Pacific Islands continues to lead the way in CRVS improvements.

Key objectives of the meeting were:

1. To share experiences in improving CRVS across the Pacific from the last 4 years of the Pacific Vital Statistics Action Plan in order to a. build further support for CRVS across the region, b. encourage countries to ensure CRVS is linked to national plans, and c. share actions and strategies that may be useful for other countries in reaching their CRVS improvement targets.
2. To share national CRVS commitments to improving CRVS, and encourage countries that have not done so to set targets in line with the Regional Action Framework,
3. To introduce the UN Principles and Recommendations (rev 3) for CRVS, along with other tools and standards to assist countries to improve their systems
4. To move forward on regional actions and approaches that address common CRVS issues (such as legislation and IT guidelines)

The meeting was supported by the Pacific Community, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the United Nations Statistics Division.