Online Reporter
Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
The government, in partnership with UNICEF, has embarked on a major programme to strengthen civil registration systems and improve access to birth and death registration, with 10 decentralised Civil Registry sub-offices in eight districts set to be computerised, digitalised and equipped with solar power.
The programme, funded by China, is aimed at ensuring children and families in hard-to-reach communities obtain legal identity documents, which are critical for accessing essential services such as health, education and social protection.
Speaking, recently, on the sidelines of the launch of a programme to protect children from the effects of drought, UNICEF chief of child protection Dr Nyasha Mayanga said the initiative will support Government through the Civil Registry Department to modernise registration services.
“Under this project, we are also strengthening the civil registration systems with a view to increasing access to death registration and legal identity,” Dr Mayanga said.
“We are in collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe through the Civil Registry Department in 10 sites in eight districts under this project funded by China.
“We are going to assist the Government of Zimbabwe to computerise, digitalise and solar power 10 sub-offices across the country.”
Dr Mayanga said computerisation will improve efficiency at Civil Registry offices while allowing communities to access digitised copies of registration documents.
He said this will make it easier for children and families to access a range of Government services.
“Some of these sub-offices which are decentralised are not computerised. So, supporting with computerisation will enable communities, families and their children to access digitised copies which will then facilitate access to a range of services including social protection, including health, education and many other services,” he said.
Dr Mayanga described birth registration as a gateway to accessing other services, saying the programme will also tackle social and behavioural barriers that prevent families from registering children.
UNICEF will engage traditional leaders, religious leaders, parents, caregivers and other community leaders through community dialogues to address beliefs and practices that discourage registration.
“There could be several barriers that prevent people from getting registered. So, the social and behavioural change component would facilitate engagement with communities through community dialogues,” Dr Mayanga said.
“You saw here there were traditional leaders, we also had religious leaders and other community leaders, parents and caregivers. Those are very important stakeholders in the registration of our children.”
He said UNICEF will also work with the Civil Registry Department to introduce targeted mobile registration exercises in hard-to-reach communities.
“We are also going to work in collaboration with the Civil Registry Department to bring a mobile registration component which would be targeted in the sense that there are some pockets which are hard to reach in the communities where the birth registration programme is going to be implemented,” Dr Mayanga said.
He said the mobile registration component will ensure communities that face geographical and other barriers to accessing fixed Civil Registry offices were not left behind.
Dr Mayanga also emphasised the importance of integrating birth registration into other programmes being implemented in communities, particularly water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition and health interventions.
He said existing community platforms will be used to generate demand for birth registration and disseminate information on its importance.
“I want to emphasise the issue of integration. You may be wondering why birth registration in a programme that involves WASH, in a programme that involves nutrition,” he said.
“What we are going to be doing is that we are going to be facilitating generation of demand through the various platforms that serve the other components like your WASH, like your nutrition.
“We have got care groups within communities. Birth registration messages creating more awareness. We are going to be disseminating information through those platforms.”
Dr Mayanga said integrating birth registration into WASH, nutrition and health programmes would help increase registration rates by reaching families through services they already access.
“This then brings the convergence, the integration of birth registration into WASH, into nutrition programmes, into health programmes with a view to increasing registration rates in the country,” he said.
