Table 1 Sustainable Development Goal indicators relating directly to civil registration and vital statistics systems Target 16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration Target 17.19 By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries Indicator 16.9.1 Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority, by age Indicator 17.19.2 (b) Proportion of countries that have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration The ten-year implementation plan of Agenda 2063 has also identified an indicator on birth registration under goal 18 (Engaged and empowered youth and children) and target 5 (End all forms of violence, child labour exploitation, child marriage and human trafficking), namely, “Proportion of children whose births are registered within the first year.” Global civil registration and vital statistics scaling up investment plan. The World Bank and WHO, with input from several agencies and countries, have developed a global civil registration and vital statistics scaling up investment plan. It covers activities for a 10-year period (2015–2024), with the goal of “universal civil registration of births, deaths, marriages, and other vital events, including reporting cause of death, and access to legal proof of registration for all individuals by 2030” (World Bank, 2014, p. 19). Africa Core Group.8 The Core Group is an example of best practice in coordination among development partners. Its strong concerted effort and commitment to supporting the continental framework has enabled the alignment of institutional mandates, thereby maximizing resources available for the continent. The Core Group and the Africa Programme secretariat have demonstrated harmony in programme delivery at the continental level and set standards for similar arrangements at the country levels. African Symposium on Statistical Development. The other important country-led initiative is the African Symposium on Statistical Development. South Africa has been funding and organizing the African Symposium since 2005 to support and encourage African countries in their population and housing censuses. The Symposium has prioritized civil registration and vital statistics as a theme for discussion in five of its annual symposiums, from the seventh symposium, held in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012 to the eleventh symposium, held in Libreville in 2015. The meetings convened civil registration authorities and national statistics offices to deliberate on the improvement in civil registration and vital statistics systems in the Africa Programme framework. In the past, national statistics offices of most African countries had largely been disengaged from the civil registration and vital statistics systems improvement process. The Symposium has changed the situation with the establishment (in most countries) 8 The Core Group is composed of the pan-African organizations (African Union Commission, African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa), the secretariat of the African Symposium on Statistical Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Plan International, the INDEPTH Network, Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century and Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative. 9