By Michael Gwarisa
While 70% of deaths in Zimbabwe occur in rural communities, nearly half of those deaths are not registered with the Civil Registry Department.
Although Zimbabwean law mandates compulsory death registration, compliance in rural areas remains low, with many deaths going unrecorded. This has raised concerns about the accuracy of national demographic data, affecting population projections, disease surveillance, epidemic tracking, and mortality pattern analysis.
Letisia Zengeya, Assistant Registrar General for Births and Deaths, attributed the low death registration rates to the inaccessibility of registration centers and a lack of public awareness regarding its importance.
In 2022, 121,070 deaths were recorded nationwide, with 70% (84,156) occurring in rural communities. Alarmingly, of the 84,156 deaths recorded in rural areas, 43% were not registered,” said Zengeya.
Meanwhile, the difference in crude death rates between rural and urban areas highlights higher mortality in rural regions, with nine deaths per 1,000 people compared to 6.3 per 1,000 in urban areas.
“Recording every death strengthens governance and public administration by providing decision-makers with the necessary information to develop and implement evidence-based policies, programs, and services,” she added.
Globally, around two-fifths of deaths remain unregistered, forcing health policy departments to rely on incomplete and poor-quality mortality data.
“In Zimbabwe, the challenge of low death registration is mainly due to passive notification, which relies on families reporting deaths to initiate the civil registration process. Long distances, high travel costs to registration centers, and inadequate awareness regarding the legal requirement and significance of death registration further exacerbate the issue,” said Zengeya.
She added that registering deaths in rural areas is not a prerequisite for conducting burial rites, which contributes to the lack of motivation to report deaths to the responsible department.
“To address these challenges, the Civil Registry Department has conducted national mobile registration exercises, established sub-offices within districts, and simplified administrative procedures. In 2023, the department piloted active notification for community deaths in Manicaland and Matabeleland North provinces,” Zengeya said.
