SWAZILAND: Giving parentless children an identity

Mbabane, 21 November 2006 (PlusNews) - A joint initiative between the Swaziland government and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to waive birth certificate fees for orphans and children in rural areas has boosted registration figures. Over 60,000 children in Swaziland have been orphaned by AIDS and, according to UNAIDS, that number will continue to grow.

At least 40,000 new birth certificates were issued this year in a country of just over a million people, where nearly 39 percent of those between the ages of 15 and 49 are living with HIV - the highest percentage of infected people in the world.

The initiative was launched after UNICEF officials discovered that many children attending the 300 Neighbourhood Care Points (NCP) in rural Swaziland were unregistered. The care points, set up by UNICEF, provide basic schooling, one hot meal a day, health services, counselling and an opportunity for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) to socialise with other children.

"We found that 27 percent of children did not have birth certificates. In 2005, we started a campaign in 55 [of the country's 370] chiefdoms. The focus was only on OVC, but we soon decided that, no, all children must have birth certificates," said Pelucy Ntambirweki, a project officer at UNICEF's social policy section.

"The justice ministry provided all the transport and personnel, and really got behind the effort. We merely worked on improving their capacity to undertake the job," he added.

A birth certificate provides a permanent, official record of a child's existence, and is fundamental to realising children's rights and practical needs, according to UNICEF. The certificates are critical to allowing access to healthcare, immunisation, school enrolment at the right age, and protecting children from abuse in the form of labour, trafficking or forced marriage.

Vusi, 21, was born at home, not at a hospital where births are automatically recorded for a token fee of about 15 US cents, and grew up as an abandoned child on a rural homestead. "I wish I knew my real birthday. When I got my birth certificate [with the help of his adoptive parents] when I was 10, they made up a birthday for me."

At least he was registered. The long distances rural parents often have to travel to reach government registration offices has discouraged many from obtaining birth certificates and, according to custom, births were usually reported to the local chief. Later in life, when a Swazi required a government document, like a passport, the chief's runner or umgijimi would accompany him or her to a government office to vouch for the person's identity.

"This worked for most traditional matters, but today there is a need for birth certificates to open bank accounts, attend college and other matters," said Nonhlanhla Dlamini, project officer with the Alliance of Mayors Initiative for Community Action Against AIDS at the Local Level (AMICAALL), an NGO.

In accordance with the government's decentralisation policy, which seeks to bring services to communities, the Justice Ministry has set up mobile offices manned by civil servants to register births in rural areas at no cost, while UNICEF has provided high-quality printing paper for the tens of thousands of birth certificates, and arranged for a printing company to produce the documents.

Parents or guardians are required to provide the children's information but, in the case of orphans, grandparents, other relatives or even neighbours can be parental stand-ins. In some instances, NCP caregivers who know the orphaned children provide their information.

"There was a spillover effect we did not expect: people got to realise the importance of these life documents; they came to the officials dispensing birth certificates, and many married couples got marriage certificates; people got their national identification (PIN) numbers," said Ntambirweki.

The government and health and social welfare NGOs have all welcomed the initiative because it provides accurate statistics. "The information we receive from birth certificates can be very helpful for policy-making," said Ntambirweki.

About half the rural communities have been covered by the programme, which is now to be expanded to urban areas. Partnering with UNICEF, AMICAALL will launch a pilot programme in Siteki, capital of Lubombo Region in the east, and Nhlangano, capital of Shiselweni Region in the south. It will then be launched in the northern town Pigg's Peak, before tackling the populous urban belt connecting the capital, Mbabane, with the central commercial hub of Manzini in 2007.

"Children living in informal settlements or peri-urban areas are also in need of birth certificates. No OVC has R10 [about US$1.30] to pay for late birth registration, so the fee will be waived by the Justice Ministry", said AMICAALL's Dlamini.

A birth certificate symbolises a change in Swazi society - no longer is a person's identity determined only by a traditional authority vouching for it.

According to UNICEF, some 48 million births went unregistered globally in 2003 - 36 percent of all estimated births worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, 55 percent of children aged under five are unregistered.

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Theme (s): Children,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]