Improving birth and death data for African decision making

The scarcity of current, complete, and accurate primary data on causes of death in most of sub-Saharan Africa restricts the ability of countries to measure progress against many of the Sustainable Development Goal targets, measure the impact of programmatic interventions, prioritise and plan to address their health needs, and achieve the goals of the Africa On Aug 10, 2018, the Agenda 2063.1 first African Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day was celebrated, underscoring the importance of working towards compulsory, uni versal CRVS systems across the However, progress towards continent.2 establishing these systems has been slow; even with substantial inputs and political will, universal CRVS will probably take decades to be functional in all countries.