Issues paper: integrating mortality surveillance to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics systems

Abstract

The goal of the mortality surveillance program of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is to improve mortality data completeness and accuracy by helping States to develop their technical capacity for surveillance and resource mobilization and by promoting inter-pectoral collaborations and the integration of national mortality data, regardless of how derived, in order to support regional efforts for the complete registration of vital events. Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems are generally recognized by health leaders as the ideal source of these data, but most African countries lack functional CRVS systems for several reasons, including inadequate investment and technical capacity. Most countries in Africa rely instead on sporadic surveys, such as demographic and health surveys and multiple indicator cluster surveys. While surveys provide vital information about births and deaths, they have several critical limitations.