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New momentum for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) is building, driven by the confluence of growing demands for accountability and results in health, improved equity, and rights-based approaches to development challenges, and by the immense potential of innovation and new technologies to accelerate CRVS improvement. Examples of country successes in strengthening of hitherto weak systems are emerging. The key to success has been to build collaborative partnerships involving local ownership by several sectors that span registration, justice, health, statistics, and civil society. Regional partners can be important to raise awareness, set regional goals and targets, foster country-to-country exchange and mutual learning, and build high-level political commitment. These regional partners continue to provide a platform through which country stakeholders, development partners, and technical experts can share experiences, develop and document good practices, and propose innovative approaches to tackle CRVS challenges. This country and regional momentum would benefit from global leadership, commitment, and support.

Background: Injuries are becoming a major health problem in developing countries. Few population based studies have been carried out in African countries. We examined the pattern of nonfatal injuries and associated risk factors in an urban and rural setting of Tanzania.

Summaryobjectives To validate verbal autopsy (VA) procedures for use in sample vital registration. Verbal autopsy is an important method for deriving cause-specific mortality estimates where disease burdens are greatest and routine cause-specific mortality data do not exist.methods Verbal autopsies and medical records (MR) were collected for 3123 deaths in the perinatal/ neonatal period, post-neonatal <5 age group, and for ages of 5 years and over in Tanzania. Causes of death were assigned by physician panels using the International Classification of Disease, revision 10. Validity was measured by: cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMF); sensitivity; specificity and positive predictive value. Medical record diagnoses were scored for degree of uncertainty, and sensitivity and specificity adjusted. Criteria for evaluating VA performance in generating true proportional mortality were applied.results Verbal autopsy produced accurate CSMFs for nine causes in different age groups: birth asphyxia; intrauterine complications; pneumonia; HIV/AIDS; malaria (adults); tuberculosis; cerebrovascular diseases; injuries and direct maternal causes. Results for 20 other causes approached the threshold for good performance.conclusions Verbal autopsy reliably estimated CSMFs for diseases of public health importance in all age groups. Further validation is needed to assess reasons for lack of positive results for some conditions. keywords cause of death, autopsy/methods, epidemiological measurements, epidemiological methods, vital statistics, child mortality Background