Photo above shows the trainee facilitators
Update by Adam Nyundo
December 2025
Save the Children Zambia through its Child Sensitive Social Protection project (CSSP) promotes child sensitive social protection using the “cash plus” parenting model to help improve parenting practices and prioritize the rights of children to education, nutrition, and protection. The CSSP “parenting package” comprises of a series of parenting (ICDP eight guidelines of good interactions) and thematic (Importance of education, risk of child labour, nutrition, family budgeting and gender transformation) sessions. The project is leveraging on the Social Cash Transfer programme run by the government of Zambia.
The CSSP parenting sessions are based on the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) principles but contextualized to the local situation. The parenting package aims at improving understanding among parents and caregivers of the positive qualities of care that should and could exist between parents and the child, increased sense of caregiver self-confidence and a better understanding and reaction towards children’s point of view and intentions. The programme also aims at ensuring that child-to-child and child-to-caregiver relations are more positive and differentiated.
Under this package, trained parenting facilitators have been responsible for conducting parenting sessions for households in Kalulushi and Lufwanyama District. A total of 1066 caregivers, representing 1056 households, under the Social Cash Transfer programme were reached.
To ensure sustainability of the CSSP parenting sessions, in 2025, the project trained 22 (6M/16F) staff from the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services from the province as well as the two Districts of Lufwanyama and Kalulushi in the Copperbelt province. This is in addition to the 8 (2M/6F) MCDSS staff who were trained in 2021. The 22 facilitators trainees are currently working with caregivers as partial fulfilment of the award of the facilitator certificate.