Vital statistics has received considerably low priority in the policy agenda of sub-Saharan Africa, in general and Uganda in specific, despite the urgent need for reliable information to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Policy decisions and effective planning of resources entirely depend on reliable information; unfortunately this may be inadequate in most poor countries. This paper therefore asks; should we bother about counting the dead and what they have died from and do we need to know about those being born! For any country to efficiently and effectively plan...