The African Regional Convening to Support Parents and Caregivers was held from 21-23 June 2022. It brought together almost 1500 individuals from 742 unique organizations from across Africa working in the fields of health, education, nutrition, social welfare, gender, early childhood, adolescence, water and sanitation, mental health, violence prevention, climate, and others. The convening included presentations on more than 50 evidence-based initiatives focusing on different sectors and platforms for reaching parents and caregivers. The convening was organized by GISP partners and the African Early Childhood Network with funding support from USAID.
An African Compendium of Case Studies, led by AfECN and jointly developed by GISP partners based on the evidence-based interventions presented at the convening, is now available.
We have a lot of evidence on what works in our region and now we need to join hands together and bring it to scale.
The Compendium of African Initiatives to Support Parents and Caregivers has a lot to offer for policy and decisionmakers, as well as development partners, civil society organisations and implementing organisations. More than a collection of programmes, it also aims to further the discussion about how to best design programmes so that they are effective and reach the greatest number of parents.
Part 1 of the Compendium reviews the key themes and lessons learnt from the evidence-based parenting programmes featured in the document. It brings attention to gaps in parenting support provision and offers advice to policy-makers and research institutions. Part 2 of the Compendium summarizes parenting support programmes that are currently being implemented in different countries in Africa and which were presented at the African Regional Convening in June 2022. It includes the summaries of 26 evidencebased parenting programmes, 1 national strategy and 1 network of implementing organisations.