A single civil registration network has been established to ensure stronger data sharing on births, deaths and marriages across the Pacific.
Photo: RNZ/ Sela Jane Hopgood
The Pacific Civil Registrars Network is part of a global movement to increase registrations of vital events as globally, as half of the 128 million babies born each year go unregistered.
The network aims to ensure vital information does not get lost when people travel.
New Zealand's Registrar-General Jeff Montgomery is the chairman of the network and he says accurate and up to date data helps countries plan their public services better.
"We know that a number of people from the islands might go to Australia or New Zealand for medical care and they may die in that country so by sharing the information back with their birth country that country can use that to look at any health issues that maybe emerging in their community and also to plan health facilities in their country."
