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Nqobile Tshili

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GOVERNMENT is set to rope in traditional leaders in the issuance of birth and death records and has identified 14 districts where the project will be implemented.

The programme is set to benefit more communities and make it easy to access services without bringing witnesses in obtaining national documents for children born outside a health facility.

On Tuesday, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazambe Kazembe briefed Cabinet on the planned programme to ensure deaths and births recorded in communities are documented.

Previously, there has been a concern that deaths and births that occur in rural areas go unregistered.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said, introducing a communal civil registration and vital statistics system will provide up-to-date data.

“The nation is informed that statistics are the bedrock of planning, policy and decision-making, and good governance, and it is pertinent, therefore, to have a reliable and up-to-date Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system,” she said.

“The nation is being informed that, as part of improving the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system, the Civil Registry Department will be introducing the active notification of births and deaths occurring in communities,” said Minister Mutsvangwa in her post Cabinet media briefing.

She said the Government will train traditional leaders who will capture community births and deaths on specially designed notification forms.

“These notification forms will serve the same purpose as birth confirmation records issued at health facilities. The data submitted by traditional leaders will be captured at district level,” said the minister.

“The programme will be piloted in 14 districts before its roll-out to all districts in the country.”

The minister, however, did not identify the districts that have been identified to pilot the programme but said the system is important as it will empower traditional leaders to effectively execute their mandate in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:02].

She said costs related to bringing witnesses in obtaining national documents will be a thing of the past when the programme is fully implemented.

“It will lead to the improvement in the registration of births and deaths in rural areas, and there will be no need for witnesses in cases of community births and deaths.

“Members of the public will no longer incur transport costs, and births and deaths will be registered timely,” she said.

-@nqotshili