5.1 Capacity building and development • There is an apparent need to increase staff in the RGs office. • More mobile and other forms of community awareness and information dissemination are necessary. • There is need to encourage and plan for more organized and systematic mobile registration campaigns (in terms of timing and regularity). • Parliament should be lobbied to play a more dynamic role in advocating for child-friendly laws. • There is need to provide greater funding to the RGs office. 5.2 Inter-agency/Inter-ministerial support • In the interest of inter-ministerial cooperation and coordination, the RGs office should use the Department of Social Welfare for social investigation of disadvantaged children in need of birth registration documents. 5.3 Legal issues and framework • The requirement of having a birth record difficult for most parents and a hindrance for a lot of rural folk so this requirement should be revisited. • It is recommended that birth certificates be issued at places of birth i.e. hospitals or major clinics. • Birth registration legislation and related acquisition laws need to be more sensitive and responsive to community realities. • The Ministry of Health should be responsible for birth registration of minors, whilst the Ministry of Home Affairs could be responsible for persons beyond 18 years of age as this would ensure greater numbers of children getting registered at birth, except for those delivered in homes. • The clause on compulsory registration of children needs to be supported by enabling instruments that can help to enforce it. • The right to a birth certificate should be included in the Zimbabwe constitution. • Amend BDRA to allow children in loco-parentis legal authority to register siblings (with testified support of their local leadership) 5.4 Administration • Enforce the mandatory birth registration of children (be they under guardianship or their parents); • Establish a public relations agency or an enquiries office at registrar general’s offices; • Birth registration cases should be assessed on their peculiarities and individually; • Traditional and local leaders could keep records of the children born in their areas for authentification purposes when they need registration documentation and verification ; • Establish more mobile registration centres for peri-urban and rural areas; • In the case of death the mother, the father should be empowered to register the child not the family of the mother because the father is the natural guardian; Birth Registration Research Report/2007 14