While the continent has made commendable progress in establishing a census programme with the participation of almost all countries, the data demands of Africa’s development programmes to significantly override what censuses and surveys offer with regard to providing population data and statistics, which constitute a majority of the minimum statistical programme. The limitations of these data sources include the frequency with which conducting these censuses and surveys takes place. It limits their ability to provide data on short-term intervals, their cost-efficiency and their limitation in scope, including their ability to provide data on specific areas, such as cause of death and disaggregated data that can allow follow-up at the lowest levels of administration. In the absence of well-functioning civil registration systems, Africa faces a great risk in designing and implementing interventions that are specific to the needs of the people and in accurately monitoring the success of the continent’s development programmes in a timely manner. Civil registration systems remain the ideal source of population data in view of their outstanding attributes of permanence, continuity, universality and compulsoriness. Investment in these systems is both timely for the era of the 2030 Agenda and for the good governance age as prioritized by Agenda 2063. This section has provided a summary of the priorities of the 2030 Agenda era, which Africa must realize in order to stay current and not be left behind. The five-year (2010-2015) medium-term plan of the Africa Programme has provided the framework to the realization of some of these priorities for individual countries and the continent. In its Yamoussoukro Declaration, the ministers of the third session of the Conference of African Ministers requested the renewal of the five-year medium-term plan to the period 2016-2020 (Economic Commission for Africa, 2015). III. Scope and guiding principles of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems The Africa Programme was set up by the Conference of African Ministers to support the strategic shift required in the civil registration and vital statistics landscape in Africa by ensuring that member States have in place a viable system that would cater to the basic rights and benefits of individuals and that would inform planning and decisions. In short, the strategic intent of the Programme is to facilitate evidence-based development and the transformation of society. 4