of development plans. In its place, the need for vital statistics is met by conducting expensive periodic demographic and health surveys and decennial population censuses. In addition, in the absence of reliable information on cause of death, there is no solid basis to determine which diseases have a major impact on the population. This, in turn, has negatively affected the development and transformation efforts to improve the well-being of the people. This report sets out the strategic direction and overall goals of the Africa Programme initiative. It then lays out the desired strategic outcomes and objectives, including the major activities for each objective. The strategic direction set by the vision “Everyone visible in Africa” and mission for the desired civil registration and vital statistics system in all African countries will guide all actions and activities relating to civil registration functions. The vision statement presents the main goal of the civil registration and vital statistics system by taking cognizance of the current state of the system and indicating the direction where the system should head in the future. The vision implies the recording of events identified within the scope of the registration activities as they occur in all countries, in line with the “leave no one behind” principle. It tackles the sad state of invisibility of millions of Africans to their own Governments, and at the same time guaranteeing to meet the legal requirements of citizens and produce quality vital statistics, including cause-of-death information, regularly and on time. The mission statement for the African civil registration and vital statistics decade is “to register the occurrence and characteristics of all vital events in Africa to ensure the realization of universal basic human and civil rights, for improved service delivery and informed evidencebased planning and decisions through an efficient and complete civil registration and vital statistics system”. The mission statement defines the fundamental purpose of the system, describing why it should exist and how to achieve the vision of the system. It summarizes the core business of the Africa Programme and national, regional and international stakeholders and the public. The mission statement echoes that these key stakeholders agree on what the strategy should achieve. The highest goal of the civil registration and vital statistics system is to be able to achieve complete registration and to support the evidence-based development and transformation of society. In this regard, the four identified strategic outcomes would ensure the achievement of the desired mission and vision. These outcomes will, in turn, be realized through 13 strategic objectives that deal with the severe weaknesses and gaps observed in the civil registration and vital statistics process at the country and continental levels. The estimated total cost for the activities or interventions required to accomplish the strategic objectives is $25,737,600 for the period 2017–2021. 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 much-needed vital statistics to inform decisions in African countries and at the continental level. This calls for revisiting the Africa Programme structure and staffing conditions. It is worth noting that the secretariat has registered many achievements during the period of the medium-term plan (2010–2015). It is, however, not well structured and adequately staffed to undertake the heavy scaled-up activities recommended by ministers at the 2016 Conference of Ministers for the civil registration decade. The identified strategic objectives require a revamped organizational structure of the Africa Programme to advance the civil registration and vital statistics agenda in Africa. v