registration and vital statistics information capital at national and continental levels X. 4.4.3 Develop a training syllabus and material, including testing on digitization 4.4.4 Develop a pool of experts on digitization 4.4.5 Provide hands-on in-country external support (e-civil registration and vital statistics boot camp) to develop in-country solutions based on the civil registration and vital statistics digitization guidebook 4.4.6 Deep-dive hands-on training on the use of the civil registration and vital statistics digitization guidebook 4.4.7 Develop open civil registration and vital statistics software Structure of the Africa Programme secretariat in the Economic Commission for Africa The strategic plan is about establishing a modern comprehensive civil registration and vital statistics system in Africa. The Africa Programme requires a management and technical structure that would facilitate the strategic shift required to drive the desired change in the registration of vital events and the supply of needed vital statistics to inform decisions in the countries and at the continental level. Revisiting the current Africa Programme structure and staffing conditions is necessary. This section presents the structure of the secretariat, which would be commensurate with its new responsibilities as proposed in the present document. A. Rationale for restructuring the Africa Programme secretariat The Africa Programme secretariat is part of the Demographic and Social Statistics Section of the African Centre for Statistics in ECA. The Section is bearing the heavy work of the Africa Programme on top of its mandated responsibilities from ECA, without additional staff resource. It is worth noting that the secretariat has registered many achievements since 2010. It is, however, not well structured and adequately staffed to undertake the heavy scaledup activities recommended by ministers at the 2016 Conference of Ministers for the civil registration decade and the activities proposed in the present document. The identified strategic objectives require a revamped organizational structure to advance the civil registration and vital statistics agenda in Africa. There is also a need to align the secretariat’s management in such a way that it becomes accountable for the performance of the new proposed administrative system. 23