Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative: Strengthening vital registration data on mortality and causes of death

Project Details

Establish national research/data development collaborations with selected countries in the region to improve knowledge about the quality of data in routine mortality surveillance and to use local data to estimate likely national cause of death patterns and how they are changing; publication of research findings in regional/global public health journals; demonstrate global leadership and expertise in CRVS through close collaboration with key global development partners and publication of influential papers/series in high impact journals, such as the Lancet; seek funding for global and regional CRVS strengthening activities and research.

Project summary

A key input into estimating the burden of disease in countries is national data on the age and cause distribution of all deaths that occur in a country. National statistical systems to generate this data are generally weak in most countries of the region. In collaboration with global development partners, including WHO and the Secretariat for the Pacific Communities (SPC), this research involves working with local researchers and government data custodians/analysts to apply various methods and techniques to rapidly reduce ignorance about who dies of what in their populations through strengthening critical data collection mechanisms and  building analytical capacity to critically appraise and interpret local datasets. More broadly, this initiative also seeks to influence and collaborate with global development partners in order to focus investments in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems to achieve maximum impact.

View our website here: mspgh.unimelb.edu/dataforhealth

Researchers

Laureate Professor Alan Lopez

Full staff list

Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies