Evaluation of a Village-Informant Driven Demographic Surveillance System in Karonga, Northern Malawi

Abstract

Demographic Surveillance Systems (DSSs) have been established in many developing countries to provide data on fertility and mortality and on determinants of trends in health. These systems complement nationally representative surveys such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) which, along with decennial censuses, are the main source of demographic data in countries lacking universal vital registration systems. DHS has been designed to yield high quality data on: (a) fertility, (b) family planning and (c) child health but has been less successful at: (a) documenting levels, (b) trends, (c) age patterns and (d) causes of adult mortality.

This paper describes and evaluates the first demographic surveillance system (DSS) in Malawi, covering a rural population of 30,000. Unlike others, the Karonga DSS relies on trained village informants using formatted registers for the primary notification of vital events and migrations. Seven project enumerators subsequently collect