FEATURE
One of the biggest contributors to preventable deaths isn’t a health problem but a record-keeping problem — and it is one that can be solved. by Jane Inall and Kelly Bartholomeusz
The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative is a global initiative that has partnered with low- and middle-income countries to reach an anticipated 1.5 billion or more people. The Initiative aims to dramatically improve health data, including improving understanding of the leading causes of premature death, with the ultimate goal to save more lives by ensuring countries have more accurate public health information through strengthened civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems. The University of Melbourne, through the Global Burden of Disease Group in the Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, is one of six implementing partners of this Initiative.
The Global Burden of Disease Group currently provides this technical assistance in Myanmar, China, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Pre-testing of paper verbal autopsy (VA) forms at a rural health facility in the Solomon Islands.
In addition to the provision of technical assistance, the Global Burden of Disease Group conducts a CRVS Fellowship program to build capacity in emerging civil registration and vital statistics leaders, and has developed the CRVS Knowledge Gateway to ensure countries have lasting access to vital resources and upto-date information to support CRVS system development. Through these interventions, participating countries and cities are equipped with the necessary knowledge and technical capacity to target specifically issues affecting public health.
Participants of the SmartVA (Smart Verbal Autopsy) training session 25th to 28th June 2019, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.
The implementing partners focus on improving national capacity, skills and knowledge to strengthen CRVS systems. Interventions include technical assistance to: increase the registration of births and deaths, improve the quality of cause of death information at hospitals, apply verbal autopsy to better understand probable causes of death in communities, produce highquality data sets and develop data analysis skills for policy and program analysis. www.graduatehouse.com.au
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