Who Counts? Unlocking The Economic Value of Knowing Who's Still Here

Civil registration provides the foundational record of when people enter and leave the population, enabling identity, population registration and other public data systems to remain accurate and up to date. Yet investments into birth and death registration data are often seen primarily as administrative or social-sector efforts, despite their relevance across health, public finance, social protection, pensions, insurance, and economic planning.

Co-hosted by Vital Strategies, UNESCAP, and UNDP, with support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, this in-person session will explore the proposition that people-data infrastructure rooted in civil registration generates an economic dividend. The session will bring together Ministries of Finance, Digital, and other sectors of government, as well as senior UN and development leaders, and private-sector decision-makers. We will examine the civil registration and vital statistics, digital identity and overall digital public infrastructure ecosystem, to identify where the value is created, who benefits, and who currently bears the costs of incomplete or outdated identity and vital-event data.

The event will conclude with a set of practical priorities for governments, development partners and the private sector—and with a challenge to rethink the investment question: not simply to know what legal identity costs, but what does it cost an economy not to know who its people are, and who is still here?

Held at the Modena by Fraser, an 8-minute walk from the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, the discussion will be followed by a networking reception. Registration is required, space is limited. Light refreshments and dinner will be served.

Speakers:

• Ms. Lin Yang, Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme of UNESCAP

• Ms. Pauline Gathuri, Senior Manager at the Association of Kenya Insurers

• Mr. Waruna Sri Dhanapala, Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy, Sri Lanka (Invited)

• Mr. Rehan Asif Asad, Advisor to the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications & ICT (Invited)

• Mr. Gerd Trogemann or Ms. Beate Trankmann, UNDP Asia Pacific

Moderator: Mr. Siddhi Aryal, Regional Director, Asia Pacific Hub, Vital Strategies