MONICA KAYOMBO/Berlin
At the recently concluded 2025 World Health Summit (WHS) held in Berlin, key stakeholders emphasized that Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems are essential for public health planning, surveillance, and infectious disease control. The call for strengthening CRVS was supported by major organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the CDC Foundation.
Dr. Paul Zulu, Head of Prevention and Preparedness at the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI), highlighted the life-saving potential of accurate death data during a WHS session titled “The Lifesaving Potential of Death Data: Shaping Health Policies that Save Lives.”
He stated that CRVS systems enable timely outbreak response, promote equity in healthcare delivery, support better planning and budgeting, and enhance accountability. “Based on the data we receive, we are able to make informed decisions to prevent public health threats and shape national health policies, including budget allocations,” Dr. Zulu explained.
He further noted that Zambia has made significant strides in improving CRVS, increasing death registration from just 4% in past years to 42% currently. However, he acknowledged that underreporting remains a problem, especially in remote rural areas and community-level deaths.
To address these gaps, Dr. Zulu reported that over 5,000 medical doctors in Zambia have been trained in medical certification of cause of death, and there is ongoing need for continuous training of coders, forensic pathologists, and other health professionals to ensure data accuracy.
Challenges in CRVS implementation were also highlighted, including infrastructure gaps, legal and institutional coordination issues, and barriers to data sharing between different ministries and government agencies.
One of Zambia’s recent achievements is the introduction of an e-death notification system, which has reduced reporting delays by 88%, from 60 days to just 7 days. The integration of the smart care electronic medical records system with the Integrated National Registration Information System (INRIS) has enabled the automatic transfer of death data, improving both timeliness and accuracy.
“Zambia’s experience shows that when digital tools and trained personnel come together, death data becomes life-saving intelligence,” Dr. Zulu said in conclusion.
Other global stakeholders echoed similar sentiments. WHO’s Digital Innovation Lead, Alain Labrique, noted that investing in CRVS systems is a critical driver of health transformation. “Digital tools reduce the burden of getting statistics,” he added.
Chloe Mercedes Harvey, Associate Population Affairs Officer in the Statistics Division at UN-ESCAP, expressed concern over the inefficiency of death certificate processing in many developing countries. She cited global estimates showing that about 40% of deaths are not recorded, emphasizing that improving death data systems is one of the most impactful investments countries can make in public health.
Betsy Fuller, a health and management professional at Bloomberg Philanthropies, shared that since 2015, the Data for Health Initiative funded by her organization has helped low- and middle-income countries improve birth and death data. Over the last decade, 12.2 million birth records and 16.2 million new or improved death records have been collected in partici“When we talk about 45 million unrecorded deaths each year, we are talking about data gaps that make it harder for governments to allocate resources effectively, especially now when financial restrictions are tighter than ever,” Fuller said.
CDC Foundation Technical Adviser reinforced the Hafiz Chowdhury point that CRVS systems are vital for evidence-based planning and decision making.
He noted that while 70% of global deaths are caused by NCDs, with nearly 80% occurring in low- and middle-income countries, only about 30% of government health spending in middle-income countries and 13% in low-income countries go toward addressing them.”
In 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced an additional investment of $150 million into the Data for Health Initiative, bringing its total commitment to $436 million.
Picture by: Maria Rendo
