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BRINGING PUBLIC SERVICES TO THE LAST MILE

INTEGRA Mobile One Stop Centres are taking essential public services to remote areas across Zimbabwe.

By Governance for Public Goods and Services

March 12^th, 2026

The winding roads leading to Avilla pass through misty mountains and deep valleys near Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique. For many people living in these remote areas, those roads are more than a landscape. They are barriers separating families from essential services most citizens take for granted: legal assistance, health care, identity documents, and protection from violence.

INVISIBLE ON PAPER

For 24-year-old Kudzanai Kabanda, those barriers shaped much of her life. When her father died in 2019, the long-delayed paperwork needed to register her birth suddenly became nearly impossible to complete. Without a birth certificate or national identity card, Kudzanai could not take national exams, apply for formal employment, or open a bank account. Even basic government support programs remained out of reach.

Her late father’s relatives lived far away. Her mother couldn’t find her own identification papers. Every time Kudzanai tried to get registered, someone would ask for documents she didn’t have. They would send her away to find papers that seemed impossible to get.

Kudzanai Kabanda proudly holds her birth certificate and national ID—documents she received for the first time through the Mobile One Stop Centre. Photo: UNDP Zimbabwe/Anesu Freddy

“People don’t understand what it means not to exist on paper. You watch everyone else live their lives while you stand outside, looking in.”

HELP ARRIVES

Life changed for Kudzanai one morning when something unusual appeared in the schoolyard of Avilla Primary School. Under blue tents, government officials set up tables and chairs as villagers gathered in curious clusters. Civil registry officers, legal aid lawyers, health workers, and prosecutors,were working side by side. For one day, the schoolyard had become a Mobile One Stop Centre (MOSC), bringing services that normally existed only in distant towns directly to the community.

Residents gather at a Mobile One Stop Centre to access legal support, health services, and civil registration—bringing government services closer to communities in remote areas of Zimbabwe. Photo: UNDP Zimbabwe/Anesu Freddy

RECOGNITION AT LAST

Kudzanai was among the first to arrive.

For years she had been told to return with documents she did not have: her father’s death certificate, proof of identity, official records that had long been lost in the aftermath of grief and hardship.

This time, the officials had come to her village. In just two days, she obtained the documents she had spent years trying to secure—her father’s death certificate, followed by her birth certificate and national identity card.

With legal identity, Kudzanai can now open a bank account, apply for jobs, and register her own child properly at birth.

Community members queue to access essential public services brought to them by a Mobile One Stop Centre in Zimbabwe. Photo: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe

A CHILD SPEAKS

For others, the Mobile One Stop Centre provides something even more urgent: protection and justice.

One morning, a nine-year-old girl walked alone to a Mobile One Stop Centre set up near her village. Approaching a social worker, she whispered a sentence that immediately raised concern: “My mother is locked in a room and being eaten by witches.”

A psychosocial counsellor from the Department of Social Development converses with nine-year-old girl to help her cope with trauma and misinformation. Photo: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe

MOSC RESPONDS

At first, it sounded like a child’s fear. But as officials gently asked questions, a deeper crisis began to unfold. Emotional abuse. Child marriage. And a family without formal civil documentation, leaving them unable to seek legal help. The response was immediate. Social workers, police officers from the Victim Friendly Unit, legal aid officers, and health professionals worked together to assess the situation and intervene. The child’s sister received psychosocial and health support, while the family obtained the documentation needed to pursue legal protection.

ON THE FRONTLINES

Behind each case are frontline workers who carry the emotional weight of the stories they encounter.

Roseline Mafukidze, a social scientist working with community outreach teams, often spends long days listening to people whose experiences have rarely been heard.

“On average, I counsel about twenty people in a single outreach session,” she says. “Every conversation is different, and each story leaves a mark.” The cases she encounters range from domestic violence and child protection concerns to families struggling with loss, poverty, or trauma. What keeps her returning to these communities is the impact that even small moments of support can have.

People wait for their turn at a Mobile One Stop Centre in Zimbabwe. Photo: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe

“Sometimes the most important thing we can offer is simply listening. People want to know that someone cares—that government has not forgotten them.”

BRINGING SERVICES CLOSER

Supported by UNDP through the INTEGRA (Integrity for Public Goods and Services) initiative, the Mobile One Stop Centre is designed to reach people living in remote and hard-to-reach areas. By bringing multiple services together in one place—civil registration, legal support, health services, and protection mechanisms—and taking these services directly to people in remote areas, the initiative helps ensure that distance and poverty no longer prevent people from accessing essential public services.

All this is made possible with support from the Governments of the Republic of Korea, Denmark, and Luxembourg through UNDP’s Funding Window for Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis and Resilience.

Mobile One Stop Centre brings essential public services directly to people in remote areas of Zimbabwe. Photo: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe

BRINGING PUBLIC SERVICES TO THE LAST MILE

NO ONE LEFT BEHIND

Across rural Zimbabwe, distance and poor infrastructure make it hard for people to access basic public services. In some areas, the nearest police station is dozens of kilometres away, and the journey can cost more than families earn in several days. Without identity documents, many people remain invisible to the systems meant to protect them.

The Mobile One Stop Centre brings government services directly into communities. Civil registry officials, legal experts, and health workers work side by side, allowing people to access different types of support in one place.

The Mobile One Stop Centre is not just about services—it’s about dignity, trust, and transformation. With support from the Judith Neilson Foundation, UNDP Zimbabwe, and government partners, it offers a model that helps bridge the urban–rural in access to justice divide.

For Kudzanai, it meant finally holding the documents that confirm her place in society. For Ropa, it meant protection and support when her family needed it most. And for frontline workers like Roseline, it is proof that meaningful change often begins with something simple: meeting people where they are.

In Zimbabwe’s most remote corners, transformation sometimes arrives in the form of tents in a schoolyard and the promise that no one should be left behind.

Footnotes

INTEGRA is supported by the Governments of Republic of Korea, Denmark and Luxembourg through UNDP’s Funding Window for Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis and Resilience.

This story draws on multiple stories and materials previously published on the UNDP Zimbabwe website and has been adapted into a single narrative for storytelling purposes.

Photos: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe

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FootNotes

INTEGRA is supported by the Governments of Republic of Korea, Denmark and Luxembourg through UNDP’s Funding Window for Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis and Resilience.

This story draws on multiple stories and materials previously published on the UNDP Zimbabwe website and has been adapted into a single narrative for storytelling purposes.

Photos: Anesu Freddy/UNDP Zimbabwe