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No record, no progress?

08.3.2013

A very accurately entitled article  stated back in 2007 that most people in the developing world are born and die without leaving a trace in any legal record or official statistic. That means being born without having an identity, living your life in places where the state makes no provision for you and leaving this world as if you never existed in any written document.

Sound recording of vital statistics but also of cause of death data are public goods that enable progress towards development goals as they relate to the production, analysis, dissemination and use of reliable and timely information for decision makers at various levels. However not much seems to be happening in the right direction to address this situation: the most recent UNICEF data  reveal that there are no records of the existence for approximately half of all the children on the African continent. And in most developing country settings where medical certification of cause of death does not exist, accurate attribution of a female death as a maternal death and on the levels of maternal mortality is difficult. Generating more and better data is critical.

The weakness in recording vital statistics is one of the factors that conspires against the achievement of development goals like the MDG4  (Reduce child mortality) and MDG5 (Improve maternal health). They first need to be well measured. Otherwise how can countries without civil registration plan, allocate resources, implement or evaluate policies? And after decades of working with the limitations of incomplete data, what evidence does the international development community have that funds have the desired effects on either mortality or poverty reduction?

The research community should also take its commitment by developing methods to ensure both the quality of vital statistics and cause of death data in low resource settings. As Lee Jong-Wook, WHO Director General from 2003 to 2006 said, «to make people count, we first need to be able to count people».

Presentation: Make Women Count!