Improving health and mortality data in Eastern Mediterranean Region countries: implementation of the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11).

Doctor, Henry; Rashidian, Arash; Hajjeh, Rana; Al-Mandhari, Ahmed

On 25 September 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted and committed to a new development agenda "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", which translated into 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Global commitment to SDGs ushered in renewed calls to improve availability and accessibility of timely and quality information to monitor the progress towards achieving the health-related SDGs globally and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Health-related targets - under SDG 3 and also within other goals - require careful measurement and monitoring in order to track progress and success in policy implementation. SDG targets requires accurate and timely reporting of diseases, risk factors, mortality and causes of deaths (ranging from maternal mortality to death from road traffic accidents) and health care and social determinants of health.