The Fiji Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Health, with support from UNESCAP, Vital Strategies, Pacific Community and UNSW recently launched two CRVS reports – Vital Statistics Report 2016-2021 and the Vital Statistics Report 2016-2021: Highlights, and Assessing Inequalities in Registration of Births and Deaths.
The Vital Statistics Report provides statistics on births and deaths recorded by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and registered by the Ministry of Justice’s Civil Registration Office during 2016–2021. The report provides details on the more than twenty thousand annual births in Fiji as well as information on the most common causes of death and the expected life expectancy for babies recently born and those who are aged 40 years.
Fiji is the first country in the Pacific, and maybe globally, to complete an in-depth quantitative inequality assessment, examining differentials by sex, age, ethnicity, and mother’s marital status. Ethnicity was found to have the largest impact on both birth and death registration completeness. Insights from this assessment will be used to inform future research and policy interventions to bridge gaps in birth and death registration between different population groups in Fiji.
In launching the two reports, Mr Kemueli Naiqama Chief Executive of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, reminded attendees that “behind each data point is a person, their family and their community” and he called on all Fiji government agencies and partners to use the data in the reports to guide policy making. He also said the completion of these two reports will inspire us all to reconfirm our commitment to CRVS and improving these systems.