Deputy Executive Secretary completes marathon to pilot advocacy campaign
16 November 2010
Dr Nosa Orobaton, Health Metrics Network Deputy Executive Secretary, ran the 28th Ticino International Marathon on 14 November 2010 to test a new idea for an HMN advocacy campaign. The campaign will raise awareness on the need to register all births, deaths and causes of death. "Well-functioning civil registration is akin to a marathon: it takes planning, practice, resilience, coordination and time. But it can be accomplished with adequate preparation and efforts," said Dr Orobaton. "All the runners were registered in this race. This is what needs to be done for the 40 million births and 40 million deaths that are not recorded globally every year. Doing so, will be a great step forward to improving the health of populations and fostering social innovation." The top two male athletes who finished the punishing 42.195 km race with world class times of 2:20.31,5 and 2:22.08,8 are from developing countries where civil registration systems are often not robust enough to generate accurate health data.