Catalyzing Support for CRVS Improvement – Examples from the Data for Health Initiative

In this document we share experiences of three countries supported under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative to leverage support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (“the Global Fund” or “the Fund”) for the generation and use of community cause of death data. The report describes how stakeholders in Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia secured investments from the Fund to improve the quantity and quality of data from civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems. These investments have led to the first direct measurement of AIDS, TB and malaria mortality using both WHO ICD and verbal autopsy methods.

Well-functioning and reliable CRVS systems that include the assignment of cause of death using WHO-approved methods are essential to good governance. These data permit the monitoring and evaluation of effective public health policy, and interventions aimed at major killers such as AIDS, TB and malaria.