Malawi has advised other African countries that strategic planning and proactive partnerships are key to overcoming social, economic, political and technological challenges that national identification and civil registration processes face.

National Registration Bureau (NRB) Chief Director Harry Kanjewe shared Malawi’s experiences on the registration processes at the 11th SDG 16+ Technical Consultation on Justice in Sierra Leone on 11th October, attended by government, civil society and private sector representatives from 11 African countries such as Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana.

Malawi conducted a six-month mass national registration campaign last year, during which over 9.1 million adult citizens were registered. Continuous national registration is underway. Mass registration of children, aimed at closing the gap, is the next upcoming endeavor being meticulously planned.

Kanjewe said Malawi’s national registration exercise required adequate resources to reach even the remotest parts of the country where connectivity, civic education and electricity are limited.

“Some citizens decided to forego the exercise on the pretext of being preoccupied with other issues, but the government in collaboration with the National Initiative for Civic Education, conducted a robust public awareness campaign throughout the country,” said Kanjewe. “This was particularly possible with the intervention of village-based civic education volunteers who live amongst the communities.

He also said proximity of national identity cards distribution centres and citizens’ eagerness to possess the cards improved collection of the national IDs, with about 98 percent of the cards collected in many distribution centres.

The national registration system in Malawi has been linked with a digital civil registry, which records a person’s vital events, including birth, death and marriage.

“Given the successful initiation of a birth registration system in Malawi, the Malawi Government complements the civil registry with a death registration system. Though initially centralized, the system is now being decentralised to some district hospitals on a pilot basis. These elements of death registration constitute a pivotal component of the civil registry,” said the Chief Director.

He however noted that creating an interface between the civil and national registration systems requires good connectivity, saying an optic fiber backbone for high-speed internet, which Malawi Government laid in the country, provides a modern channel for data transfer on which government systems including civil and national registration operate.

Meanwhile, Malawi is linking the national ID system to other registration processes and services. For instance, the voter registration exercise for next year’s Tripartite Elections is using national IDs for eligible voters to register to vote.

“The Malawi National Registration Bureau is currently collaborating with various sector players of the economy with an aim of linking up the digital registry to various other systems. These include commercial banks and micro-finance institutions for financial inclusion.

“Other linkages include the Malawi Revenue Authority for citizens’ identification in tax registration. Further linkages will be established with Government line ministries of education, agriculture, transport, health and local government,” said Kanjewe.

The national ID is touted as a game-changer in Malawi as it provides an essential tool to enable people’s participation in a modern economy and access to basic rights and services.

UNDP Malawi is supporting the Government of Malawi on the National Identity card through the National Registration and Identification System Project; with support of DFID, the European Union, USAID, the Government of Norway and the Government of Ireland

The technical consultations in Sierra Leone were part a series of consultations that will feed into next year’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF), a United Nations central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.