The cost of introducing and maintaining VA in CRVS systems is unknown, and this is a critical issue for policy makers and managers. Because there is a pressing need to forecast costs as well as monitor and analyse costs as implementation of VA scales up, the University of Melbourne and Swiss TPH developed a VA costing tool. This tool assists countries to estimate the resources needed to integrate verbal autopsy into routine civil registration and vital statistics systems, and captures the actual costs during implementation. 

The VA costing tool is intended to address three main purposes:

• Assisting those making budgets for VA by providing detailed frames and items to include
• Determining actual financial and economic costs per VA obtained, once countries start implementing
• Modelling costs in alternative implementation scenarios, including the changes in economic costs.

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VA Costing and Budgeting Tool