CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5.0 Introduction Based on issues raised in the research, the following recommendations are made regarding birth registration in Zimbabwe: 5.1 Capacity building and development There is need to increase staff in the RGs office. • Staff (from other ministries) that assist in the mobile registration process need better and more intensive training in human and people management and social relations. • More mobile and other forms of community awareness and information dissemination are necessary. • Public information documents for ordinary people are critical (more so if they are in local languages). • There is need to encourage and plan for more organized and systematic mobile registration campaigns (in terms of timing and regularity). • Local and grassroots’ consciousness programmes need to be planned for and implemented regularly. • Enhance the capacity of the RGs office for better inter-agency and interorganisational cooperation for increased acceptance for those intending to register for birth certificates. • 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. • Inter-ministerial collaboration, joint programming and programmatic linkages between and among government sectors should be encouraged not only for purposes of information dissemination but also as a way of complementing community efforts, e.g. the use of other departments/ministries to compile case histories in support of “difficult” cases. 5.3 Legal issues and framework • The requirement of having a birth record is very burdensome and a hindrance for a lot of rural folk so this requirement should be revisited. • Obtaining a birth record is a cumbersome process and requirement. For instance, if a child was born in Parirenyatwa Hospital, it is costly to go back and forth from Bindura/Hurungwe to Parirenyatwa Hospital to renew the birth records and then having to go to Market Square to obtain a birth certificate. • It is recommended that birth certificates be issued at places of birth i.e. hospitals or major clinics. Birth Registration Research Report/2007 45