By Maxwell Mapungwana
GOROMONZI-The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe, is set to strengthen birth registration and access to legal identity through the computerisation, digitalisation and solar powering of 10 Civil Registry sub-offices across the country.
The initiative, being implemented in 10 sites across eight districts under a project funded by China, is aimed at improving access to birth registration, particularly for children and families in underserved and hard-to-reach communities.
In an interview during the launch of a two-year programme to support children and vulnerable communities affected by the prolonged El Niño-induced drought in Goromonzi on Friday, UNICEF Zimbabwe Chief of Child Protection, Dr Nyasha Mayanga, said strengthening civil registration systems was critical because birth registration provides children with a gateway to a range of essential services.
“Birth registration becomes a gateway to accessing other services in the country,” Dr Mayanga said.
He said the computerisation of decentralised Civil Registry offices would improve efficiency and make it easier for communities to access digital copies of birth certificates.
“Some of these sub-offices, which are decentralised, are not currently computerised.
Supporting them with computerisation will improve business efficiency within the civil registry system and enable communities, families and children to access digitised copies,” he said.
According to Dr Mayanga, having legal identity documents is important in facilitating access to social protection, health, education and other government services.
The project will also address social and behavioural barriers that discourage families from registering children at birth.
UNICEF, said Dr Mayanga, will work with traditional leaders, religious leaders, community leaders, parents and caregivers through community dialogues aimed at changing norms, beliefs and practices that may prevent children from obtaining birth certificates.
“These are very important stakeholders in the birth registration of our children,” Dr Mayanga said.
The project will also include targeted mobile registration exercises in communities that are difficult to reach, in collaboration with the Civil Registry Department.
Dr Mayanga said the mobile registration component would ensure that geographical barriers do not prevent children and families in remote areas from accessing birth registration services.
She also highlighted the importance of integrating birth registration into other community-based programmes, particularly water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition and health interventions.
Rather than treating birth registration as a stand-alone programme, UNICEF plans to use existing community platforms, including care groups, to spread information and generate demand for registration services.
“We are going to be facilitating generation of demand through the various platforms that serve the other components, like WASH and nutrition.
We have got care groups within communities, and birth registration messages creating more awareness will be disseminated through those platforms,” he said.
The integrated approach is expected to increase awareness of the importance of birth registration while making better use of existing community structures.
The initiative comes as Zimbabwe continues efforts to ensure that all children have legal identity and are able to access essential services.
By bringing registration services closer to communities, strengthening digital systems and addressing social barriers, the programme is expected to contribute to increased birth registration rates across the country.
