The workshop gathered African experts in mortality statistics collections together to collaborate on new technical guidance to be provided to countries for designing better mortality statistics systems; and to develop a pool of available experts to deploy to countries to support technical improvement and results in mortality data collections, especially for death registration, hospital deaths and integrating systems for community deaths.

The workshop aimed to guide countries in developing a sustainable nation-wide strategy to implement ICD for causes of death. By the end of the workshop each country should have a sound strategy with set goals and timelines given their resources. Their strategy may also include using verbal autopsy as an approach to obtain causes of death in deaths occurring outside of health-facilities. This will include:

This document has been developed through a consultative process involving country representatives from the health, civil registration and statistics sectors, technical experts, researchers, and representatives of agencies, donors and development partners. As part of this process, a technical meeting,  Improving Mortality Statistics as part of Strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, World Health Organization, Technical Meeting, was convened by WHO from 4 to 5 November 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.

A global meeting on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) took place in Addis Ababa from 28-29 April 2014, co-hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group, and sponsored by the Government of Canada Department for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

The Population and Vital Statistics Report presents most recent data on population size (total, male and female) from the latest available census of the population, national official population estimates and the number and rate (births, deaths and infant deaths) for the latest available year within the past 15 years. It also presents United Nations estimates of the mid-year population of the world, and its major areas and regions.

Articles

• Strong commitment for improving CRVS in the Pacific
• Toolkit for assessing civil registration of asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and persons of undetermined nationality 
• Countries reporting on national targets and baseline data
• 72nd Commission session approves the Report of the Regional Steering Group for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific

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