In this collection, BMC Medicine presents a series of articles on progress in strengthening civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems, highlighting key methodological advances, innovations and implementation experiences that have resulted in significant gains in knowledge about best practices to strengthen national CRVS systems.
The collection includes expert Debate and Research articles, with overarching goals to:
- Articulate recent innovations in CRVS systems-strengthening, particularly those resulting through partnerships between philanthropic organisations and research institutions, harnessing the power of research advances in population health measurement with information technology to foster significant improvements in country cause of death data systems
- Inform development partners and funders about key priorities for future investment in CRVS systems, notably around the need for integrated community vital events notification systems and approaches to more effectively capture the fact of death and to reliably diagnose its cause, both for deaths in hospital and elsewhere
- Inform and inspire new scientific research, and collaboration with and within government, to build the evidence base for CRVS system-strengthening
- Disseminate knowledge about country experiences with CRVS methods and stimulate debate about how they might be improved to ensure CRVS systems are fit for purpose, focussing on what works in strengthening CRVS practices, and what does not.
This BMC Medicine collection was developed in partnership with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia, and draws upon experiences of countries involved in Phase 1 of the Data for Health Initiative, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Open access to all accepted articles was funded by the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.
The responsibility for all final editorial decisions was with the Chief Editor.