Bruised bodies to open minds: Importance of gender transformative parenting programs in violence prevention and how to make them accessible to all Kenyan parents

Abstract

In Kenyan families, the pervasive issue of violence impacts everyone, though it disproportionately affects women and children. While family violence, encompassing both violence against children and intimate partner violence, is indeed preventable, the current intervention landscape is challenging. Traditional parenting programs in Kenya, while numerous and focused on improving general parenting skills and child outcomes through direct instruction and reflection, often have limited impact and fail to address the complex, intersecting forms of family violence and lack a gender transformative approach. Furthermore, many promising programmes in the region remain largely as NGO-led research or pilot projects, rarely reaching the scale necessary to benefit the vast number of families that need them. Despite their proven potential, widespread adaptation and implementation of these programs remains limited. While global adaptation and scaling frameworks, including the widely recognized INSPIRE framework, exist to guide governments and NGOs looking to scale evidence-based violence prevention programs, these frameworks often underplay the dynamic, real-world complexities inherent in achieving true, sustained scale-up. This paper documents the journey of Kenya's Positive Parenting Programme, detailing its evolution from an NGO-led initiative to a nationally adopted and budgeted intervention. It distills findings essential for successful program scaling, offering concrete guidance for governments and practitioners striving to institutionalize gender-transformative parenting programs within national systems. Success with scaling in Kenya required a departure from traditional scaling frameworks, underscoring the critical role of informed gender-based advocacy coupled with strong organizational capacity to leverage support from both government and donors alike.