Health
Oyo, UNICEF promote positive parenting to protect children
Ademola Adegbite
The Oyo State Government, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund and Value Female Network Africa, has commenced the Gender Transformative Positive Parenting Programme 1.0.
The programme began with a two-day training for community facilitators held on September 2 and 3, 2026, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Lagos Field Office, Denis Onoise, said strengthening parents and caregivers was important to preventing violence against children and improving the child protection system.
Onoise said, “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 the programme was designed to strengthen the protective environment around children, adding that parents and caregivers were among those closest to children and could identify early signs of abuse, neglect or other forms of vulnerability.
He urged the community facilitators who participated in the training to use the knowledge acquired to strengthen existing community-based child protection structures and improve awareness of referral pathways for children at risk.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of Value Female Network Africa, Costly Aderibigbe-Saba, said the programme was designed to strengthen the role of parents and caregivers in protecting children and address harmful social norms and practices within families and communities.
She said, “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 the inclusion of several child protection issues in the parenting curriculum was deliberate, explaining that children could be exposed to different forms of vulnerability at the same time.
She said, “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.
“The partnership between VFN, UNICEF and the Oyo State Government was aimed at ensuring that the knowledge acquired during the facilitator training would go beyond the training venue and result in sustained conversations and behavioural changes in homes and communities.
“The community-based approach would enable the programme to reach parents directly and create opportunities for them to discuss practical challenges they face while raising children.”
Speaking with journalists, the Director of Programmes, Value Female Network Africa, Samuel Abimbade, said the programme was developed in response to concerns about child neglect, abuse, violence and communication between some parents and their children.
Abimbade said parenting required attention, care, guidance and communication, particularly as children were growing up in an environment influenced by technology, social media and other external factors.
He said positive parenting should not be mistaken for allowing children to do whatever they wanted, noting that discipline remained part of raising children.
Representing the Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Mrs Adediran Oluwawemimo, urged parents to build closer relationships with their children.
She said parents who created an atmosphere where children could approach them without fear would be better positioned to 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 given the exposure of children to influences outside the home.
The training brought together community facilitators who are expected to take the lessons from the programme into selected communities and lead structured parenting school sessions over a 10-week period.
The community sessions will be implemented across Ibarapa North East, Ibarapa South West, Egbeda and Akinyele Local Government Areas of the state, with about 800 parents and caregivers expected to participate directly.
The programme will cover positive parenting, child development, parent-child communication, positive discipline, gender-equitable caregiving, positive fatherhood, adolescent supervision and digital safety.
It will also address the prevention of sexual violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage and other harmful practices, as well as birth registration, community-based child protection structures and referral pathways for children who may require additional support.
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