In their words: Preventing violence through better parenting

Solange Rosa from SA’s Western Cape government describes the ISS’ invaluable contribution to prevention policy.

Published on 22 January 2016 in Impact

The ISS is guiding the implementation of evidence-based parenting programmes in the Western Cape, a South African province with high levels of gang violence and child neglect. 

‘The ISS played an invaluable leadership role through its profound understanding of the importance of good parenting in violence prevention,’ says Solange Rosa, Head of the Western Cape policy unit in the office of the provincial premier. Parenting is essential to children’s cognitive, health and social development, and has long-term implications for their success at school and resilience to drugs, delinquency and violence.

A workshop that was designed and run by the ISS and the University of Cape Town (UCT) engaged provincial stakeholders in a discussion about principles, priorities and opportunities for the scale-up of parenting programmes. ‘The ISS helped us to develop an evidence-based strategy for parenting interventions that will reach 100 000 mothers and fathers through the public health system, and to measure the impact of these programmes,’ Rosa says.

‘The ISS has been vital to our understanding and decision making around parenting, which we see as key to children’s economic and social prospects. They are helping to build a generation that is more likely to have healthy relationships and less likely to join gangs.’

The model developed by the ISS and UCT may also guide future interventions across South Africa.

	The ISS played an invaluable leadership role through its profound understanding of the importance of good parenting in violence prevention
	– Solange Rosa, Policy Unit Head, Office of the Premier, Western Cape