Understanding the VA costing and budgeting Tool

This summary is edited from ‘Developing a verbal autopsy costing and budgeting tool’, a CRVS technical outcome series paper. The VA Costing and Budgeting tool can assist by identifying detailed financial and economic costs per VA, considering a wide range of VA related activities for budgeting, and helping to model various scenarios for future planning. As demonstrated though a pilot study of four countries, the tool can be used at various stages of VA implementation activities from integrating into well-established CRVS systems for a few deaths, to rolling out at national level to capture a majority of deaths. The tool can help identify major areas of spending, unit cost over time and number of VAs performed and the human-resource related costs. The VA Costing and Budgeting tool can be a valuable asset in preparing for VA implementation at any stage at a national or sub-national level.