November 2025

Uganda’s Advanced Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellows transformed data to actionable public health knowledge in a civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) workshop in November 2025.

The national FETP program, run through the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH), trains fellows to detect and address public health challenges. Advanced-FETP fellows complete a post-graduate, two-year fellowship where they lead outbreak investigations and conduct epidemiologic studies.

The FETP program partners with the CDC Foundation to implement the Data Impact Program, a part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health Initiative. As part of the Data Impact Program, the five-day CRVS workshop was centered on data from vital events, including births, deaths, and the underlying causes of death. The workshop focused on analysis and interpretation of death data and dissemination of findings. Thirteen fellows   learned to transform raw data into actionable insights to then propose policies and interventions to prevent premature death and strengthen health systems.

Justine Wobusobozi, a veterinarian with a background in pharmaceuticals and health supplies chain, discovered new uses for CRVS data through the training. “The workshop made me see CRVS data as more than just records,” she says. “Health leaders can use it to make timely and transparent decisions to save lives.”

Vianney John Kigongo’s biggest takeaway from the workshop was the need to link routine civil registration with health surveillance data. “Cause-of-death data can reveal trends, disparities, and priorities across various health areas,” he says.

The workshop was developed and delivered in collaboration with government entities, which brought wide applicability to data analysis, interpretation and use, empowering participants to approach health challenges at a national scale. The Uganda Ministry of Health and the National Identification Regulatory Authority provided datasets including birth and death records and mortality data. All data was deidentified to protect patient privacy. The UNIPH's existing training structure informed the development of the workshop content. The CRVS training module is now integrated into the UNIPH training program.

Fellows’ CRVS data use is ongoing. At the conclusion of the workshop, each participant identified a topic area and developed an action plan with research questions and a stepwise approach to data analysis, report writing, abstract development and dissemination. Topic areas across the participants are diverse, from the distribution of neonatal sepsis-related mortality to the completeness and timeliness of malaria death registration.

Pauline Achom’s project focuses on obstetric hemorrhage-related mortality in Uganda. “I will analyze nationally collected CRVS data and recommend evidence-based solutions to the Ministry of Health,” she says.

The Data for Health Initiative’s Data Impact team looks forward to learning from FETP fellows’ research and recommendations that aim to reduce preventable death in Uganda. Fellows also anticipate future use of CRVS data in their public health careers.

“I hope to champion projects that link CRVS with surveillance and logistics so we can target resources smarter, reduce preventable death and shape national policy with reliable data,” says Wobusobozi.

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