• • • • • • • • • • • • • 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; The first registration and first copy of the birth certificates should be free. Persuade pre-schools to ask parents to bring birth certificates before enrolment (without denying those that do not have them); The significance of birth registration should be extensively understood through the active engagement of the top political leadership and traditional leaders, with more resources being allocated for information dissemination and awareness. Headmasters should be capacitated to assist in investigating circumstances of children in need of birth registration. Birth registration centres should be significantly decentralized for greater accessibility by the majority population. Whilst some stringent requirements are required to protect the interests of minors born out of wedlock such as orphans and children from broken families, these could be made less rigid treatment so that guardians find it less strenuous and problematic to get a birth certificate. There is need to campaign for minor/child-friendly birth registration strategies. Children could be used in the promotion and information dissemination on birth registration in both schools and the community through innovative campaigns such as development theatre/drama. Schools authorities must be encouraged and supported to endorse the critical relevance and importance of birth registration through urging parents who bring children for admission to get their children registered. Opportunities such as community meetings and groupings (for other development programmes) should be incessantly used to advocate for child registration. Stringent document requirements for non-Zimbabwean children aged below 18 should be relaxed; Child friendly registration desks should be established; 5.5 CONCLUSIONS The research gleaned out issues on the registration of children. It revealed various levels of understanding of the legal framework, socio-economic conditions and related challenges that unregistered children faced. The research also brought out some of the ways in which issues of child registration could be supported in legal and social terms. People’s perceptions regarding the functions of the RGs office also emerged and RGs officials in the two districts explained their own views and experiences regarding these perceptions of the respondents. Apparently the RGs office needs to relentlessly engage the generality of the people to explain its roles, functions and regularly raise awareness on the requirements for birth registration. Birth Registration Research Report/2007 47