This technical report summarizes the activities, results and lessons learned from Phase 1 of the ConVERGE (“Connecting Vital Events Registration and Gender Equality”) Initiative. Phase 1 of this initiative, which was conducted from March 2019 until April 2021, was supported by IDRC’s Centre of Excellence on CRVS Systems via a grant (Integrating Gender, Leveraging Population Censuses and Building a Culture of Vital Statistics Production, Centre File: 109005-001). Phase I operated in the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Lao PDR.
Key findings are reported, including some related to gender and death registrations:
- COVID-19 has highlighted the further urgency around addressing sex-differentials in death registration completeness — equitable health responses require equal documentation on population health and mortality for women/girls (as for males).
- Opportunities for linkage between maternal death surveillance systems and CRVS systems can improve routine and continuous data on preventable maternal deaths.
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