Positive Parenting Package reaches 34 million families across the globe

Solutions

Parent in India

In late March, a team of experts developed a set of parenting tips through the COVID-19 Playful Parenting Emergency Response Project* to support caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This resource pack was created with evidence from parenting programmes in Africa, Asia and Europe. Using this data, the tips aim to provide parents and caregivers with effective skills to reduce conflict in the home by increasing warmth, improving child and adolescent behaviour, using non-violent discipline, reducing caregiver stress and family economic stress, and providing skills to manage anger and frustration.

As of today, these resources have been translated into over 100 languages and disseminated by governments across the world, reaching at least 34 million families in 174 countries. They have also been distributed through print, web and social media, along with WhatsApp and public service announcements by UNICEF, USAID, WHO, UNODC, The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and the World Bank, faith-based agencies, collaborating partners and others. 

Pathfinding country engagement

Across the world, Pathfinding countries are doing their part to share these messages with families and caregivers. In the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka, governments are delivering these resources to 10 million families alongside food parcels and through radio announcements. In the United Arab Emirates, the government has re-created the tips to best reach religious Islamic households, using Instagram to spread awareness during these times of confinement. In Montenegro, partners have distributed the tip sheets via print media to more than 4,500 households, while networks in Romania have adapted the content to create five short videos now circulating Romanian social media. And, Paraguay has reached over one million people – 15% of their population – through social media posts and delivery within food parcels.

Protecting children throughout the pandemic

The partners behind this resource – which include End Violence, the University of Oxford, Parenting for Lifelong Health, the WHO, UNICEF, USAID, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others – are now working to provide more support through four key areas. These areas include:

  • The development of playful content, such as sketches, radio dramas, and recorded stories
  • Increasing accessibility through play
  • Reaching every family through a global scale-up through UNICEF’s Internet of Good Things and other forums, and
  • Monitoring and testing playful parenting delivery mechanisms.

Read more about the partners’ future plans.

* These resources were made possible by the LEGO Foundation, the University of Oxford, the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund and Oak Foundation.

Photo: UNICEF/UNI333387

Materials