Socio-economic factors affecting access to birth registration among children born out of marriage: A study conducted in Harare

Abstract

Africa, conceptually, geographically, politically, economically, religiously and socially is in bondage. Zimbabwe faces the problemof officially registering the births of children born out of marriage and other vulnerable children. This study explored the socioeconomic barriers hindering the Zimbabwe government birth registration of children born out of marrriage in the Harare central district of Zimbabwe. The impediments encountered by parents and guardians of children born out of marrriage have also emerged as a global human rights issue, with over 237 million children under the age of 5 without birth registration as at 7th July 2021, following the UNICEF birth registration tracking. Using qualitative phenomenology design, the study investigated livedexperiences of parents within the Harare Central district area. The participants were selected using the snowball samplingtechnique, while three key informants were purposively sampled by the researchers. The study findings indicated that there are aplethora of socio-economic challenges emanating from a deficient government registration system, more inclined to cater for theurban based population than the rural folk. Additionally, general poverty among the majority of the population played a significantrole for the majority, who could not afford transport fees to travel to registration centre among many others. Moreover, religiousand other patriarchal cultural practices hinder access to birth registration. How to reference using ASWNet style:Mavuka, A., Mashiri, C. & Soko, S. (2023). Socio-economic factors affecting access to birth registration among children born out of marrriage: a study conducted in Harare. African Journal of Social Work, 13(4), 207-216. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajsw.v13i4.4 Visit journal website: https://ajsw.africasocialwork.net