Mortality surveillance analysis for 10 African countries (2000–2019): WHO ANACoD data quality assessment, ICD-10 cause-of-death trends, epidemiological transition analysis, and SDG 3.1–3.4 progress tracking. Python pipeline with reproducible outputs.
# WHO Africa Mortality Surveillance Analysis
**Author:** Muktar Ahmed, PhD | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Flinders University
**Contact:** Muktar.Ahmed@flinders.edu.au | Google Scholar | ORCID
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## Overview
This repository presents a **complete mortality surveillance analysis** for 10 African countries over 2000–2019, developed as a technical portfolio demonstrating proficiency in:
- **WHO ANACoD methodology** — replicating the WHO Analysis of Causes of Death tool in Python to assess vital registration completeness and cause-of-death coding quality
- **ICD-10 cause-of-death analysis** — structured classification and trend analysis of mortality by cause group
- **SDG progress tracking** — quantitative assessment against SDG 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 targets
- **Epidemiological transition analysis** — quantifying the shift from communicable to non-communicable disease burden
- **Policy-facing communication** — technical report written for public health decision-makers
The analysis uses a dataset **modelled on the WHO Mortality Database** structure, calibrated from GBD 2019 estimates and WHO Global Health Estimates 2024. Instructions for substituting real WHO Mortality Database data are in `data/raw/README_data.md`.
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## Key Findings
| Finding | Value |
|---|---|
| Countries with ≥90% vital registration completeness | **1/10** (South Africa only) |
| Average completeness across 10 countries (2019) | **~40%** |
| Communicable disease share of deaths: 2000 → 2019 | **51.2% → 38.3%** |
| NCD share of deaths: 2000 → 2019 | **25.8% → 41.9%** |
| SDG 3.4 NCD trajectory | **OFF TRACK** (gap: 21.9/100k by 2030) |
| Top cause of death (2019) | **All cancers** (CDR 36.7/100k) |
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## Repository Structure
```
who-africa-mortality-analysis/
├── README.md # This file
├── run_all_analyses.py # Master runner — executes full pipeline
├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies
│
├── R/ …