A. Scope of civil registration and vital statistics in Africa Not every country records all its vital events as recommended by the United Nations, although it remains the eventual goal. Accordingly, assigning priority status to selected vital events will facilitate the establishment of the vital events registration system. The international recommendation for high-priority vital events to be recorded are births, marriages, divorces and deaths. The African ministers have also recommended the recording of the four events. In line with these recommendations, the scope of the civil registration and vital statistics improvement process is set to deal with births, marriages, divorces and deaths. B. Guiding principles The strategic plan is in line with the Africa Programme concept document endorsed by the second session of the Conference of African Ministers (Economic Commission for Africa, 2012). The plan, while keeping in view country contexts, is anchored to the identified guiding principles, with additional points that need consideration to bring about a viable civil registration and vital statistics system in member States, namely: (a) Promoting country ownership and leadership; (b) Promoting systematic and coordinated approaches at the regional and country (c) Promoting phased, holistic and integrated approaches; levels; (d) Strengthening and building the capacities of national and regional civil registration and vital statistics institutions; IV. (e) Promoting partnership at the country and regional levels; (f) Promoting innovation, research and knowledge-sharing. Purpose of the strategic plan The focus of the strategic plan is to define the road map for the Africa Programme and its secretariat to drive sound reform in the first five years of the African civil registration and vital statistics decade, which spans from 2017 to 2021. The strategic plan will therefore include an examination of the following questions: (a) Where are we now with respect to the ongoing civil registration and vital statistics improvement initiative? (b) Where do we want to be by 2021? (c) How are we getting there? 5