registration and vital statistics improvement initiatives: resistance to change; financial downturn; threat from system hacking for those who are developing digital systems; and unexpected environmental hazards. C. Strategic shift required In Africa, as in many other developing countries, millions of people have come into this world and left without leaving a trace on official records. According to the World Bank and the World Health Organization (2014) estimates, the number of children in Africa under the age of five and not registered at birth is 85 million. Estimates show less than 53 per cent of deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa are reported in official records at the national scale, with only few exceptions, such as South Africa (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 2015). The recording of causes of death and the derivation of statistics thereof is in a much more unacceptable state, with only two to three countries reporting such statistics to the World Health Organization on a yearly basis. The comprehensive assessments of the civil registration and vital statistics systems in several African countries, conducted from the middle of 2013 to the end of 2016, have also highlighted the state of registration of vital events as follows: (a) The legislative framework in many countries is not comprehensive, compulsory and enforced for registering vital events. The colonial law still exists in several countries, and there have been no serious attempts to change them to suit the national context and environment; (b) The laws do not clearly state the key stakeholders and their areas of responsibility; (c) Marriage and divorce registrations are much too low in almost all countries; (d) In many countries, people are not aware that they have to register all vital events. On the other hand, civil registration services are not reaching all people in the villages and communities, in particular minority and vulnerable groups; (e) Direct and indirect costs associated with vital events registration and obtaining certificates are not affordable by low-income groups; (f) The situation of recording cause of death for both health facility and community deaths are virtually non-existent in most countries; (g) Plans and policies not informed by the realities on the ground owing to a lack of evidence on vital events. Countries are therefore missing opportunities to improve good governance and deliver basic services because civil registration processes are not linking nor interfacing with other relevant government systems and processes; (h) Countries cannot gauge performance of the civil registration and vital statistics systems because of non-existent or weak monitoring frameworks. In the absence of a fully functioning civil registration and vital statistics system, Africans have remained unrecorded and therefore unrecognized by the State. Civil registration records are the desirable source of vital statistics. Most African countries, however, have not 12