The research intended to bring out the challenges in Birth Registration, document lessons learned and make pointers for future interventions. A participatory research approach was used in the research. The participatory method sought to elicit qualitative responses from the target respondents (the communities, stakeholders and significant others in the social environment). Unregistered children face economic, social, poverty, social and health discrimination, poor social support, low quality education, social disconnection, abandonment, child abuse, torture, sexual abuse/exploitation, prostitution, child labour, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS and other related challenges. Much research has been conducted on Birth Registration in Zimbabwe. According to the Legal Resources Foundation (2006), a birth certificate is a very important document which shows what all ones names are, where they were born, when they were born and who their parents are. It is required throughout the whole life when a child enrolls for school or when they apply for a national identity document (ID). The law states that every parent must register the birth of a child within six weeks of the birth of the child (BDRA, 1986). At the community level, lack of awareness on the benefits of Birth Registration results in Birth Registration being a low priority and very quickly superseded by more important priorities2. A research conducted in the farms of Makoni District by Netherlands Development Agency, SNV (1999)3 showed the following statistics: • 76% of all children are not registered • About 90% of these children’s [parents are Zimbabwean citizens • 34 % of adults did not have any documents Unity Dow, in “Progress of Nations” (UNICEF, 1998) wrote: “A birth certificate is a child’s proof of identity and represents acknowledgement of his or her significance to the country”. In a joint study conducted by the Zimbabwe Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Zimbabwe Women’s Lawyers Association (ZWLA) conducted a study in Bindura and Mt. Darwin in 1999, established some of the economic, cultural factors, which hinder the acquisition of civil identity documents. 78 % of respondents in the study linked the requirements of birth certificates to the need for a child to attend school and to write public examinations (ZWLA & NASW, 1999). JCT implements and supports a number of interventions that are aimed at supporting children in their quest to obtain birth registration. Some of these interventions are: • Legal AID Clinics • Legal Education and Awareness programmes • Advocacy and Lobbying 2 3 Child Protection Society, 2003 Child Protection Society, 2001 Birth Registration Research Report/2007 17