An Evaluation of Pledges to Eradicate Statelessness in the SADC nationwide “mop-up” exercise to register and issue nationality documentation to those entitled to it to ensure legal identity and facilitate inclusion by 2022. Further, this would assist in identifying stateless people and those at risk of statelessness and consider legal, policy, and administrative reforms that will address and end the statelessness situation by 2024. Eswatini launched its national “mopping-up” exercise as well as regional exercises in Shiselweni and Lubombo. These exercises are ongoing and over a thousand people have been issued with documents. Introduce provisions in the nationality law to prevent statelessness and ensure effective implementation of these safeguards The majority of stateless persons have not held a nationality since birth; this often occurs due to the gaps in states’ nationality laws. Each country has its own laws that make provisions for the acquisition or withdrawal of a nationality. However, if the laws are deficient regarding the right to a nationality, persons can be barred and left stateless. The 1961 Statelessness Convention stipulates three crucial protections that states are required to introduce in their nationality laws to prevent childhood statelessness. These are, to grant nationality to children: born on the territory if they would otherwise be stateless; born abroad to nationals if they would otherwise be stateless; and found on the territory to unknown parentage, known as “foundlings.” A number of states are not signatories to the 1961 Convention and those states that have ratified the 1961 Convention have not yet included these safeguards in their nationality laws. Lesotho pledged to enact by 2020 the bill on nationality that grants nationality to children of unknown origin found in its territory and provides for a safeguard to grant nationality to children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless, although this has not yet occurred. However, in 2018, Lesotho enacted constitutional amendments that allow for equality in the conferral of nationality on spouses (Eighth Amendment to the Constitution Act, 2018: section 40). Improve quantitative data on stateless populations Only a handful of countries report on quantitative data on stateless populations, while some of the countries globally with a large suspected stateless population do not report on statelessness at all. There are several ways how statistics and information on the situation of stateless populations can be gathered, using a range of methods, including analyses of civil registration data, population censuses, and targeted surveys and studies. The Expert Group on Refugee, IDP and Statelessness Statistics developed the International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics (hereafter “IROSS”), which was submitted to and unanimously endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2023. IROSS seeks to improve the quality of data on statelessness by providing guidance on the production, coordination, and dissemination of stateless-related statistics. In late 2022, commissioned and assisted by the UNHCR, Malawi validated and published a national study on statelessness 123