Strengthening Partnerships for Nurturing Care

Key objectives of the project include: Objective 1 Review, refine, and adapt the existing parenting programming to align with the evidence-based, baseline situational analysis data and government ECD priorities in Kenya.

Objective 2 Review and assess existing and potential new implementing partners’ capacity to implement ECD interventions.

Objective 3 In consultation with the Hilton Foundation and its external evaluator, finalize an evaluation plan including proposed objectives, evaluation questions, child development indicator profiles, data collection tools, and analysis plans to support the measurement of child development outcomes.

Key Partners: County Governments of Homa Bay and Busia

Role: The role of counties includes capacity strengthening of community groups, provision of services e.g. health, education, and social services, coordination of project activities, referrals and linkages, integration of project activity in county plans coordination of partners, providing technical support and consultations to the project teams, advocacy on child development issues, and accountability e.g. resource allocation and budgeting during child development initiatives, and in resource mobilization.

Project Overview: This project focuses on responsive caregiving and parenting education, targeting pregnant women, including adolescents, and children under 5 years. Reaching over 5,000 caregivers and more than 4,000 children, this $959,659 initiative strengthens collaboration between county governments, development partners, and Community- Based Organizations. The project enhances nurturing care knowledge and practices, training community health volunteers, Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers, and child protection actors to improve the well-being and safety of young children.

Using ChildFund's Responsive Parenting model, the project engages caregivers of infants and young children on parenting practices aligned with the Nurturing Care Framework. Focused on community group settings and home visits, the project leverages existing community structures where possible to deliver key messages and support. Key messages reflect health, nutrition, early stimulation, child protection and responsive caregiving priorities. In addition, reflective supervision sessions are carried out with mentors to provide ongoing support and coaching.