The Ministry of Homeland Security through the National Registration Bureau (NRB) says it will conduct the first phase of the mass child registration exercise from October 24 to November 4 this year.

A statement signed by the principle secretary responsible for NRB, Mphatso Sambo, says the pilot phase is targeting 600,000 children in 521 government schools in the districts of Karonga, Mwanza and Lilongwe Rural East.

“The exercise will target children below the age of 16 and will be issued with birth certificates and the schedule for registering children in the other phases will be outlined next year,” reads part of the statement.

The exercise will among other things enable the country to realize the sustainable development goals of providing legal identity for everyone which includes birth registration.

This will also enable children to fulfill their rights as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child and also provide them with a unique identification number which will result in improved service delivery and evidence-based policy making and programming to children’s rights to identity, survival, development, education, protection and health.