CRVS strengthening in Sri Lanka

Although largely manual, the Sri Lankan registration system manages to register most births and deaths. However it is slow in compiling data from all the registration points, coding cause of death data, and releasing vital statistics. The high completeness of birth registration is facilitated by the fact that almost all births take place in hospitals with many hospitals offering registration services.

Close to half of all deaths occur at home, but because of the many registration points, death registration is also considered to be complete. Deaths outside hospitals are usually not medically certified, instead, the cause of death (COD) is reported by either the village head or civil registrar, neither of whom is medically trained. As a result the quality of the COD data is very poor and not fit to be used for planning or policy.

Videos on Sri Lanka's CRVS strengthening include:

• Professor Alan Lopez, Director, Data for Health Initiative, University of Melbourne (The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative in Sri Lanka) 
   
• Dr Lene Mikkelsen, Technical Advisor, University of Melbourne; Dr Lakshmi Somatunga, Additional Secretary, Public Health Services, Ministry of Health; Sathasivam Sridharan, Deputy Director-General of Health Services, Management Development and Planning Unit of the Ministry of Health; Dr Vindya Kumarapeli, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne (Improving the quality of mortality information in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan app puts death certification in doctors' hands
   
• Dr Chamika Senanyake, Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, University of Melbourne fellow (SmartVA DHIS2 Integration, Sri Lanka)
   

• Dr Rangana Wadugedara, Medical Officer, Health Informatics, Office of Additional Secretary, Public Health Services, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, University of Melbourne fellow (Development and implementation of an e-learning module on death certification)

For more information on Sri Lanka's work as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative visit: https://crvsgateway.info/file/7606/145