The Oyo State Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Value Female Network Africa (VFN), has launched a gender-transformative positive parenting programme aimed at strengthening families, preventing violence against children and improving community-based child protection.
The Gender Transformative Positive Parenting Programme 1.0 commenced with a two-day training for community facilitators held on September 2 and 3, 2026, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The initiative is expected to take positive parenting and child protection discussions directly into communities, with about 800 parents and caregivers targeted to participate in structured parenting sessions over a 10-week period.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, UNICEF Lagos Field Office Child Protection Specialist, Denis Onoise, stressed the importance of equipping parents and caregivers with the knowledge and skills required to protect children from abuse, neglect and other forms of vulnerability.
Onoise said parents and caregivers represented the first layer of protection available to most children, adding that strengthening their capacity would enable early identification of risks and improve access to support services.
“Parents and caregivers are the first protective environment around a child. Strengthening their knowledge and capacity means that risks can be recognised earlier, violence can be prevented and children who require support can be connected to appropriate services.
“Positive parenting, therefore, goes beyond how we discipline children. It is an important part of building a stronger child protection system,” he said.
According to him, the programme was designed to strengthen the protective environment around children by placing parents and caregivers at the centre of prevention efforts.
He noted that because parents and caregivers were among the people closest to children, they were often in the best position to identify early warning signs of abuse, neglect and other risks.
Onoise urged the trained community facilitators to deploy the knowledge acquired to strengthen existing community-based child protection structures and improve awareness of referral pathways for children requiring protection and support.
Programme targets harmful practices
The Executive Director of Value Female Network Africa, Costly Aderibigbe-Saba, said the programme was designed not only to improve parenting skills but also to challenge harmful social norms and practices that could expose children to violence and other forms of vulnerability.
She explained that positive parenting should focus on creating an environment in which children feel secure, respected and confident enough to communicate with their parents.
“Positive parenting is not simply about raising obedient children. It is about creating homes where children feel safe, heard, respected and supported to develop confidence and realise their potential.
“When children can communicate with their parents without fear and parents understand how to guide without violence, we begin to build stronger families and healthier communities,” Aderibigbe-Saba said.
She said the inclusion of several child protection concerns in the parenting curriculum was deliberate, noting that children could experience multiple forms of vulnerability simultaneously.
“A parent should understand positive discipline, but that same parent should also understand how to protect a child from sexual violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage and other harmful practices.
“Parents should understand the importance of birth registration, recognise when a child requires additional protection and know where to seek help. Positive parenting gives us an important platform to bring these issues together rather than addressing child protection in fragments,” she said.
Aderibigbe-Saba added that the partnership between VFN, UNICEF and the Oyo State Government was intended to ensure that the lessons from the facilitator training translated into sustained conversations and behavioural changes in homes and communities.
She said taking the programme to the community level would provide parents with opportunities to discuss practical challenges associated with raising children and seek appropriate solutions.
Technology, social media create new parenting challenges
Speaking with journalists, the Director of Programmes at Value Female Network Africa, Samuel Abimbade, said the initiative was developed against the backdrop of concerns surrounding child neglect, abuse, violence and communication gaps between some parents and their children.
Abimbade said parenting required consistent attention, care, guidance and communication, particularly as children increasingly grew up under the influence of technology, social media and other external factors.
He, however, cautioned against interpreting positive parenting as an approach that removes discipline from child upbringing.
According to him, positive parenting does not mean giving children unrestricted freedom but involves correcting and guiding them in ways that promote their safety, development and wellbeing.
Representing the Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Mrs Adediran Oluwawemimo, also urged parents to develop stronger relationships with their children.
She said creating an atmosphere in which children could approach their parents without fear would enable parents to better understand their experiences and provide appropriate guidance.
“When children know they can come to you and freely discuss what they are going through, you are better able to nurture, guide, correct and support them,” she said.
The Head of Operations, State Operations Coordinating Unit, Adelugba Omotola, described the programme as timely, particularly because of the increasing exposure of children to influences outside the home.
Facilitators to lead 10-week parenting schools
The two-day training brought together community facilitators who are expected to take the lessons into selected communities and lead structured parenting school sessions over a 10-week period.
The community-based sessions will be implemented across Ibarapa North East, Ibarapa South West, Egbeda and Akinyele Local Government Areas of Oyo State.
The programme's curriculum will cover positive parenting, child development, parent-child communication, positive discipline, gender-equitable caregiving, positive fatherhood, adolescent supervision and digital safety.
Participants will also be sensitised on the prevention of sexual violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage and other harmful practices.
Other areas include the importance of birth registration, strengthening community-based child protection structures and understanding referral pathways for children who may require additional support.
The organisers said the community approach was expected to ensure that the programme moved beyond a one-off training exercise by creating sustained engagement with parents and caregivers and encouraging practical changes in how children are raised, protected and supported.
With about 800 parents and caregivers expected to benefit directly, the initiative is positioned as a community-level intervention aimed at strengthening families while building a more responsive child protection system across participating local government areas.