twelve months from the date of such birth, stillbirth or death except with the written authority of the registrar general." Section 11 provides that the registration has to be done within 42 days of the birth. The liability for registration is with the parents of the child Registration allows the child to be given a birth certificate bearing his or her name and the name of the father in case of marital child. Section 12 provides that children born within a customary law union or born of single mothers can use the name of the mother, unless the father consents to his name being given to the child. It was alleged by some respondents that the bureaucracy at RG’s offices contributed to 63% of those children that failed to get birth registration documents. Such bureaucracy included those people that came with what they think are the necessary documents only to be told that there is something else that is required for them to be registered. It was noted that urban centres are more predisposed to greater rates of registration than the countryside due to the fact that registration offices are located in such centres. Likewise children delivered in hospital have a greater chance of being registered as compared to those delivered in homes. This was the case in Bindura District during the period when that registration office was located at the Bindura Hospital. 4.8 Decentralization of the Registrar General’s Office Birth registration offices are highly centralized, and communities with scarce resources endure financial hardships in accessing the sparse decentralized offices that issue birth certificates. The RGs office has plans to open more registration centres in the district. Currently there is one active centre at Katumba in Matepatepa area. There used to be another sub-office at Bindura Hospital but it was closed due to “lack of work”. In Hurungwe District there are two sub-offices at Kazangarare and Chidamoyo. However, it was said that these centres were still very far from many rural communities within the respective districts. 255 (65%) of adult respondents stated that the decentralized centres had been very helpful in reducing the distances that people traveled to obtain registration documents. 4.9 Efficiency and Corruption in the RGs offices In Bindura 241 (65%) adult respondents believe that the RGs office is generally inefficient. They stated that although the officials in that office “looked” busy all the time, they were actually inefficient. However, in Hurungwe 195 (52%) adult respondents indicated that they felt that the RG officials were doing their best whilst operating under very challenging circumstances and realities. Observations of the researchers in Bindura noted that the RG’s officials were Birth Registration Research Report/2007 38