Exploring the Interface Between Birth Registration and Citizenship Determination: A Scoping Study in Seven Countries in Southern Africa Gaborone, Botswana. Photo Credit: Bashi Kikia / Shutterstock.com 2. Methodology This analysis draws on two complementary streams of desk review research. First, it reviews relevant international conventions, UN guidelines and policy papers regarding birth registration, citizenship, and statelessness. A detailed synthesis of this material is provided in Section 3 of this paper. Second, this analysis examines civil registration and citizenship laws in seven countries in Africa. This legal review is supplemented with country-level insights gathered through online interviews with civil registration authorities. The analyzed countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, all of which are members of the Southern Africa Development Community, with the exception of the Republic of Congo. Countries opted to participate in the analysis based on their engagement in the Symposium on Birth Registration, Citizenship and Statelessness at the University of Cape Town in November 2023, hosted by UNHCR and the University of Cape Town. At this symposium, the issue of intertwining citizenship and the birth registration process was raised and several participants provided evidence of the practice. Due to the lack of in-depth knowledge around this topic and its impact, one of the recommendations that came from the symposium was to conduct research and document country practices. Interviews for this research were carried out in 2024 with civil registrars from all countries except South Africa (for which detailed information was available in the public domain). 7