Vital Strategies Partners With Gates Foundation and a Global Consortium to Advance AI-Enabled Cause of Death Determination Ascertainment (CODA)
March 4, 2026 (New York, New York)—Vital Strategies is proud to announce that it will serve as a key partner for the development of an artificial intelligence-driven resource to improve the assignment of causes of death in multiple situations. Under the Cause of Death Determination Ascertainment (CODA) project, a three-year Gates Foundation-funded initiative, Vital Strategies will coordinate the development, research and testing of CODA, leading a consortium of global partners. The project aims to improve death data in low-resource settings where only 8% of deaths have documented causes.
“Reliable cause of death data is the foundation of effective public health policy, yet millions of people around the world die without any reliable documentation of what they have died from,” said Dr. Philip Setel, Vice President for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics at Vital Strategies. “Countries are prioritizing and investing in civil registration and vital statistics systems, and AI has the potential to contribute substantially to this effort by enhancing how cause of death is determined, including for deaths with limited or no clinical information. It represents an opportunity to combine AI with proven public health approaches to help countries better understand why people are dying and how these deaths can be prevented.”
Existing tools can provide valuable insights into community mortality patterns, but they have varying accuracy and can be time-consuming. Autopsies and post-mortem examinations in health facilities offer the highest-quality data but are costly and limited in scale. CODA seeks to overcome these limitations by applying AI-powered algorithms to reduce uncertainty and operational burdens, integrate multiple sources of data, and streamline accurate cause of death assignment. CODA will serve as a flexible, AI-powered tool that supports cause of death determination across community and health facility settings. Two regional centers of excellence, in Africa and South Asia, will serve as hubs for experimental research during early product development.
“Artificial intelligence should not be seen as a technology to be delivered to countries as its passive recipients—it is rather an opportunity to build partnerships grounded in shared purpose and mutual learning,” said Daniel Futerman, CODA Project Director and Consortium Lead. “Our consortium partners and those who will benefit from CODA bring knowledge, insight and contextual expertise that are essential for shaping AI tools that are ethically sound and locally relevant. It is through this collaboration that CODA can help uncover patterns and data that were previously hidden, opening new possibilities for public health interventions.”
“Civil registration and vital statistics systems are the backbone of global public health,” said Dr. Susan Nznenze, CODA Research Director. “Without reliable, timely and complete data on who is dying and why, governments are forced to make crucial decisions without seeing the full picture. Many low- and middle-income countries still have limited capacity to produce timely mortality statistics. This project is about helping countries strengthen their data systems so that they can set informed public health policies that save lives.”
In addition to Vital Strategies, consortium partners include: Northeastern University, the University of Washington, IS Global, RTI International, and the CHAMPS Project Office. The centers of excellence are Witwatersrand University in South Africa and icddr,b in Bangladesh. The CHAMPS Project Office is also a close collaborator in the development of CODA.
Vital Strategies brings more than a decade of experience working with governments to help strengthen cause of death data, supporting more than 30 countries to adopt International Classification of Diseases (ICD) standards and the World Health Organization’s community cause of death assignment tools. Our technical assistance includes strengthening CRVS governance and coordination; counting every birth and death; better cause of death data; and supporting the production of high-quality vital statistics.
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes all people should be protected by strong and equitable health policies and systems. We partner with governments, communities and organizations around the world to reimagine public health so that health is supported in all the places we live, work and play. The result is millions of people living longer, healthier lives around the world.
To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or follow us on LinkedIn.