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Present momentum towards high global coverage of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) is commendably highlighted in the Lancet Series on counting births and deaths.1 There is clear agreement, for example in the UN,2 about the basic human right to have births and deaths registered, as well as statistical analyses of these registrations being hugely valuable. It is sometimes less clear that not only registering deaths but also reliably attributing their causes is a crucial component of CRVS. Mortality statistics that are cause specific are very important for health systems, but particularly in contexts in which main responsibility for CRVS rests...