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Photo credit: UN Photo/Kibae Park Blog

Have you ever tried to register a birth, a death or maybe your own marriage? Unfortunately, many of these vital events in Asia and the Pacific remain unregistered often with dire consequences for…

Photo credit: iStockphoto Blog

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are relevant to all countries, whether high, middle or low income. With increasing attention to the SDGs, countries are progressively turning to data as a…

iStockphoto / Ijeab Op-ed

As we reach the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the Asia-Pacific region’s progress and accelerate efforts to achieve our goals.

Photo credit: iStockphoto/stocknshares Blog

Last week, the death certificate of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made international news. Such certificates rarely make the headlines, possibly with the notable exception of the discussions…

Photo credit: UN/Martine Perret Blog

Increasing attention is being paid today to gender equality. There is growing awareness of the importance of narrowing gaps between girls and boys, women and men in all spheres of their lives -…

Photo credit: UN Photo; iStockPhoto/pixelfusion3d; iStockPhoto/trangiap; iStockPhoto/quangpraha Blog

Sustainability, inclusive development, diversity, resilience, to name a few, are terms and phrases often bandied about in the universe of discourse on international development. One that we hear a…

Op-ed

2022 marks the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while an end to the pandemic is in sight, it is far from over and the consequences will be felt for decades to come. At the same time,…

Photo credit: iStock/Czgur Blog

Countries in North and Central Asia are increasingly trying to make their energy sectors greener and more sustainable. With stagnating economic growth and climate change on the horizon, countries are…

Blog

“My name is Ali. (…) I was not registered until I reached the age of 16, when I realized how important it is.  Without my birth certificate, I would have been deprived of my right to…

Blog

If there is anything we share equally in this world – it is the number of hours in the day. However, how we allocate and use those 24 hours differs greatly. The type of activities we undertake, their…

Blog

At the first Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific in 2014, governments committed to ‘Get every one in the picture,’ through strengthening…

Photo credit: Yang Shuo on Unsplash Blog

In the first quarter of 2020, as news of lockdown measures in other parts of Asia and the Pacific rolled in, Kazakhstan was holding its breath and developing appropriate urgent measures in…

UNICEF South Asia Blog

In South Asia, 77 million children under the age of five lack proof of who their parents are, where they were born or even their own names. Worldwide, one in four children remains unregistered, and…

Unsplash / Napendra Singh Blog

There is no doubt the current COVID-19 pandemic is a defining moment in our lifetime. How do we support the world after the pandemic to be better than what we will leave behind? This is the key…

iStock-521993278 Blog

The far-reaching and ambitious vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind requires quality, timely, reliable and disaggregated data and statistics. This has drawn…

iStock-966874060 Blog

One of the most frequently asked questions children are asked is what they want to become in the future. I remember when I was younger, sitting in a classroom, my teacher asked everyone in class this…

Blog

Equipped with robust monitoring and indicator frameworks, national development policies can accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given this potential, much is at stake…