The broad objective of the proposed project is to improve the performance of indirect procedures for estimating child mortality in developing countries lacking accurate vital registration systems. Existing indirect procedures based on proportions dead among children ever borne by women classified by age do not give reliable estimates of recent child mortality, while those classifying women by time since first marriage are not suitable for use in those parts of the world where a substantial part of childbearing occurs outside of, or prior to, marriage. The project aims to develop a third set of procedures based on proportions dead classified by time since first birth. It is expected that such an approach will give as good recent estimates of child mortality as the existing approaches based on time since first marriage, but applicable in all countries regardless of culture-specific marriage and childbearing customs. By improving the quality and timeliness of child mortality estimates, the new procedure is expected to contribute to the targeting and evaluation of child survival programs.
