Systematic registration of vital and civil events - including birth, death, causes of death, marriage, and divorce - is critical for improving maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health. Integrated into existing health information systems, these statistics become valuable evidence, giving policymakers and practitioners the knowledge they need to review the circumstances leading to each maternal and child death, identify preventable factors, and take action where needed. However, such crucial information systems are lacking in many countries. It is estimated that one-third of the world's births and two-thirds of the world's deaths are not registered or are incorrectly certified. Although global norms, standards, tools, and promising practices exist, they are not readily accessible to, and useable by, those who need them most. Funded by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC, and housed at IDRC, the Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Systems will link knowledge seekers with information, tools, and expertise to facilitate the development and implementation of integrated CRVS systems. The Centre of Excellence will coordinate with existing expert groups to generate, consolidate, and disseminate information by developing an open-access, electronic platform to make key resources readily accessible. It will facilitate exchange of good practices and capacity strengthening, and will play an important role in brokering technical assistance for countries needing more direct support. The Centre of Excellence will work closely with the Global Financing Facility in support of the Every Woman Every Child initiative to enable the development and implementation of CRVS systems plans as part of country-led investment cases for financing by the Global Financing Facility. This project will allow the Centre of Excellence to build a knowledge base by mapping and consolidating existing (yet scattered) evidence, as well as developing state-of-the art tools, resources, and synthesis products on CRVS systems for use by countries and other CRVS stakeholders. This includes commissioning case studies to document the various processes that countries are undertaking to develop and integrate CRVS systems components into investment cases. The Centre of Excellence will also actively collect and synthesize lessons and good practices to strengthen CRVS systems.