N AT I O N A L I N Q U I R Y R E P O R T ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION For Human Dignity of people without birth certificates. The finding by the ATD Baseline Survey that the most difficult document to obtain is the birth certificate is also consistent with the National Inquiry findings24. Image 3 ZHRC Staff administering Witness Submission Forms in Manicaland Province 2.1.2 National and Provincial Stakeholder Consultative and Validation Meetings Prior to conducting public hearings, evidence of challenges experienced by people in accessing documents was gathered from national and provincial stakeholder consultative/engagement meetings. In these meetings, stakeholders identified hotspot areas where the issue was prevalent. This informed the areas that the ZHRC targeted for outreaches and gathered evidence from the written submission forms. The ZHRC further engaged stakeholders during the course of conducting evidence gathering outreaches in all the districts of the 10 Provinces in Zimbabwe. After conducting public hearings in all the 10 Provinces, the ZHRC held provincial stakeholder validation meetings where the findings from the public hearings and National Inquiry processes were shared. Stakeholders had the opportunity to input into and validate the findings of the National Inquiry. ZHRC targeted stakeholders working on access to documentation25 and those with access to communities such as Provincial and District Co-ordinators and traditional leaders. The stakeholder representation was very good. Although one traditional leader attended the national consultative meeting, the number of traditional leaders increased at Provincial consultative meetings (39) and validation meetings (45) as their participation at these levels of meetings was crucial given their role and proximity with communities who face access to documentation challenges. Participation from representatives of Government Ministries was important due to their mandate and role in the process of documentation. They were constituted mainly by Provincial and District Registrars, Provincial and District Development Coordinators, Provincial and District Social Welfare Officers, Immigration, Police and Prison Officers. CSO stakeholders who were familiar with access to documentation and were working with communities participated in the process. They represented diverse thematic constituencies such as women, persons with disabilities, youth, elderly and children among others. A total of two hundred (200) stakeholders participated at the In the ATD Baseline survey, 7,815 children (0-18 years) in 2,665 households were represented and extrapolating this to a nationwide basis. It is estimated that 36% of children, equating to some 2.3 million children, do not have a birth certificate. 24 25 See full list of organisations that participated in the stakeholder meetings in Annexure 18 6 6