From the report by ICDP trainers, Gread Zeny and Mary Jade Paitan:
The year 2023 has been a great year, when we started the national scale up of the ICDP parenting programme, which is the flagship intervention of the Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) project for the Pantawid Programme (4Ps) households of Region VIII. The roadmap for the national scale up was formulated during the operational planning and field visit conducted at the end of January, 2023. The national programme management Office (NPMO) team visited the CSSP project area where they attended a parenting session conducted by 4Ps parent leaders who were trained as ICDP facilitators. Decisions were made regarding the ICDP national scale up modalities, budget, training schedules per cluster of regions, and specific 4Ps staff to be invited.
First batch of the Facilitator level Training was conducted in Davao City from 1-4 of August, 2023. The workshop was attended by 26 (female – 19, male – 7). The group was comprised of 4Ps staff from Regions IX, X, XI, XII, CARAGA and BARMM, including focal persons from Family Development Session (FDS), Training Specialists, Gender and Development and Institutional Partnership Division in their respective regions. The second part of their training was conducted 5 – 8 of September. Participants were happy about the content of the training as they saw it as effective and relevant for the 4Ps households – and they saw it having a positive impact on the parents and their families. The second batch of the training took place 7 – 10 of November (first part) and 18 – 21 of December.
While the national scale up schedules and schemes were being set, ICDP capacity strengthening of 4Ps staff in Region VIII (this region being the social laboratory for the ICDP) was also intensified. A total of 226 Municipal Roving Bookkeepers (MRBs) and Social Welfare Assistants (SWAs) (female – 179; male – 47) of the 4Ps were trained as facilitators in May, in addition to the 636 existing staff members. The objective is to implement the parenting programme in their respective municipality in line with the 7-year Transformative Learning Path of the Kilos Unlad Framework. Six Social Worker Officers from Region VIII who were trained earlier were certified as ICDP Facilitators at the end of the facilitator level training. On the other hand, 64 (female – 55, male – 9) parent leaders, community volunteers and NACPHIL members were also trained as ICDP parenting facilitators in Ormoc City Leyte. Currently, they are facilitating under Save the Children Philippines (SCP) covered areas in Region VIII. A total of 1,331 (female – 1,152; male – 179) participated in the on-going parenting programme.
A new partnership was forged between SCP, Ormoc City Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) and the Department of Education – Ormoc division. 20 PTA officers, school guidance counselors and teachers were trained as ICDP facilitators funded by the Local School Board of Ormoc City in May. The request for the parenting training was to address alarming issues on teenage pregnancy and mental health among children and youth students of Ormoc City.
RESEARCH
In Samar, the expansion of the CSSP project was started through a research study on nutrition and health of 0-5 years old children. A total of 200 mothers of 0-5 years-old children who are 4Ps members were selected to participate in the study. The project aims to enhance mothers’ ability to feed and care for infant and young children, especially during the first 1000 days, through the ICDP parenting programme and a nutrition session. It is hoped that the research study will show positive health and nutrition outcomes on children. Baseline data collection was already completed and the endline data collection has been on-going since 200 mothers graduated from the ICDP programme in April 2023. As part of the project implementation strategy, the 200 mothers were formed into FSGs (Family Support Groups) as a sustainability structure/mechanism. A total of 8 such groups were formed.