Demographic and Social Statistics

In order to encourage and assist countries to carry out improvements in their civil registration and vital statistics systems, an International Programme for Accelerating the Improvement of vital statistics and civil Registration Systems was developed jointly by the united Nations statistical Division, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Institute for Vital Registration and statistics. The Programme was endorsed by the united Nations statistical Commission at its Twenty-sixth session held in New York in February 1991.

The Western Asia Workshop on strategies for Accelerating the Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems is the second of a series and was carried out in Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic from 20 to 24 June 1993. It was organized by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSTAT) in close cooperation and collaboration with the united Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The United Nations Population Fund provided financial support for the workshop which was supplemented by funds from ESCWA. The workshop was hosted by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic under the auspices of the Prime Minister's Office. The Central Bureau of statistics and the Ministry of Interior of Syria have assumed the responsibility jointly with UNSTAT and ESCWA for the implementation of the workshop.

The main objectives of the western Asia Workshop were: (a) To assess the adequacy of national civil registration and vital statistics processes coverage and reliability ; (b) To suggest strategies for the improvement of civil registration and vital statist.ics in the participating countries; (c) To discuss ways and means of promoting the awareness of national civil registration and vital statistics systems in each participating country.

To that end, the workshop discussed the following: (a) Current status of the national civil registration and vital statistics systems in each participating country, including the existing technical facilities, resources and the problems encountered to operate these systems on a daily basis. (b) The role of vital statistics and civil registration systems in participating countries for various uses and applications; (c) strategies for solving the problems of the systems on a one by one approach in order to promote their development and improvement, bearing in mind the availability of modern technology; (d) The elements required for a national programme of activities, in the short and medium term, for subnational improvement of the system, with the priority objective of increasing the coverage in the registration of vital events. (e) The forms of technical cooperation between international, regional and non governmental agencies in support of the national plan of action to improve the systems.