The University of Nairobi in collaboration with UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (UNICEF ESARO) and other partners launched two short Social Norms courses on keeping children safe and reducing harmful practices that impact children.
In attendance was the Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof George Osanjo, The Deputy Vice Chancellor University of Nairobi, Research and Enterprise, Prof. Hatchinson, Prof. Ndavi head of ACCAF among other esteemed representatives of the involved organizations.
The Social Norms Courses have been developed with the technical and financial support of the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, which is jointly implemented by UNICEF and UNFPA in 25 countries, including Mozambique, Zambia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda. These programs have over the years contributed significantly to generating knowledge and potentially effective solutions to address harmful social norms.
“The partnership between academia and the development sector is an essential catalyst for creating meaningful and sustainable behaviour change for children. Academia’s research-driven expertise, when combined with the practical insights of the development sector, empowers us to better understand, address, and ultimately transform complex societal behaviors. It is through this collaboration that we can equip future generations with the knowledge and tools to promote positive change on a broader scale.
The International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP) and Africa Coordinating Center for the Abandonment of FGM (ACCAF) have also played a pivotal role in the launch of these courses.
The training courses launched demonstrate the immense potential of partnerships between academia, national institutions, and the development sector in empowering the current and future generation of service providers with the objective of promoting children’s and human rights on a larger scale.
“We are delighted to see the University of Nairobi actively engaging in a process that may lead to mainstreaming of social norms programming and measurement across faculties and more broadly in the Eastern and Southern Africa region,” Lieke van de Wiel, UNICEF ESARO Deputy Regional Director said.
The University of Nairobi will be the first in Kenya to provide this 10-day long social norms course.
“We combined our expertise to co-create these short courses, building upon an existing foundation developed by UNICEF, UNFPA, and other esteemed partners. CISP supported the UoN lecturers through a ToT and provided the CSO context while the seasoned lecturers injected their experience and teaching prowess into the training programme. We could not have asked for a better partnership, and together, we co-created this programme,” said Michele Stella, CISP Country Representative in Kenya and Somalia.
The inaugural event preceded the training of the first cohort that brought together professionals and students from all around Africa including Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Photos of the event can be found here.
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