Addressing critical knowledge and capacity gaps to sustain CRVS system development

Abstract

Background: Improving civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems requires strengthening the capacity of the CRVS workforce. The improvement of data collection and diagnostic practices must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that the workforce has the skills and knowledge to assess the quality of, and analyse, CRVS data using demographic and epidemiological techniques. While longer-term measures to improve data collection practices must continue to be implemented, it is important to build capacity in the cautious use of imperfect data. However, a lack of training programmes, guidelines and tools make capacity shortages a common issue in CRVS systems. As such, any strategy to build capacity should be underpinned by (1) a repository of knowledge and body of evidence on CRVS, and (2) targeted strategies to train the CRVS workforce. Main text: During the 4 years of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative at the University of Melbourne, an extensive repository of knowledge and practical tools to support CRVS system improvements was developed for use by various audiences and stakeholders (the 'CRVS Knowledge Gateway'). Complementing this has been a targeted strategy to build CRVS capacity in countries that comprised two approachesin-country or regional training and a visiting Fellowship Program. These approaches address the need to build competence in countries to collect, analyse and effectively use good quality birth and death data, and a longer-term need to ensure that local staff in countries possess the comprehensive knowledge of CRVS strategies and practices necessary to ensure sustainable CRVS development. Conclusion: The Knowledge Gateway is a dynamic, useful and long-lasting repository of CRVS knowledge for countries and development partners to use to formulate and evaluate CRVS development strategies. Capacitybuilding through in-country or regional training and the University of Melbourne D4H Fellowship Program will ensure that CRVS capacity and knowledge is developed and maintained, facilitating improvements in CRVS data systems that can be used by policymakers to support better decision-making in health.

Reducing ignorance about who dies of what: research and innovation to strengthen CRVS systems

“…Building this knowledge base, as well as in-country capacity to sustain CRVS system development, is thus a priority. One of the goals of the Data for Health Initiative was to create a dynamic, useful and long-lasting online repository of CRVS knowledge for countries and development partners, along with developing the relevant data analysis skills through a focused CRVS Fellowship Program [31].…”

Conhecimento Crítico na Área da Saúde

“…Outro tema identificado nos achados da pesquisa está relacionado ao conhecimento crítico Outra temática que emergiu nos dados foi a do conhecimento crítico associado à governança, em que foram agrupados dois subtemas, governança em hospitais públicos (Adair et al 2020) e o papel de organizações de saúde no aprimoramento de sistemas de registros associados a nascimentos e óbitos (Adair et al 2020). Outro tema foi o de políticas, representado pela discussão da força de trabalho em saúde na Europa (Kuhlmann et al 2018).…”