By Linda Kwanjana
Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Peter Ching’oma, with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other donor partners , on Wednesday launched Vital Statistics and Verbal Autopsy Reports at the colourful function which took place at the Cross Roads Hotel in Lilongwe.
Speaking during the launch, the Minister said the report offers valuable insights into birth and death registration data by outlining key demographic characteristics, fertility and mortality measures including total fertility rates and causes of death derived from medically certified records in health facilities.
Ching’oma accompanied by Secretary for Health Dr Samson Mndolo, Secretary for Homeland Security Dr Steve Kayuni , Secretary for National Registration Bureau (NRB) Mphatso Sambo and other senior Government officials, said for government to make a decision, they have to know how many people are in Zomba Chingare, how many people have died in Likoma, and how many people have born in Likoma, when planning in the mind of government, they have to have that number to say, okay, here we have a lot of people.
He said, the reports will help Government make decisions that will be in tandem with the demographics on the ground.
In his remarks NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo said , disseminated data from the year 2015 when Government roled out the first birth registration and death registration, to 2022 disseminating this data is so crucial for use by various stakeholders, as well as government, for planning and other uses.
He said NRB has launched this world of Statistics Report with support from the National Statistics Office, but also working with the Ministry of Health, as one of greatest institutions that generate data, especially birth and death data, but also the user of the same data and the having worked with means of Health and the National Research Office.
He said NRB, has demonstrated efforts to collaborate, to grow or to maintain civil research system sustainably.
“We have also launched a verbal autopsy report. The verbal autopsy report is from the data that we collected from Mchinji and Blantyre as a pilot,” he said.
