The Problem This Programme Addresses
In Nigeria, the path to parenthood is largely unaccompanied by any structured preparation. Antenatal care (where it is accessed at all) focuses on physical clinical outcomes: monitoring foetal health, managing pregnancy complications, preparing for delivery. What it does not include, in any systematic way, is preparation for what comes after: the relational, psychological, economic, and developmental demands of raising a child.
The result is a population of parents (including educated, employed, urban parents) who arrive at parenthood without a functional framework for what the role requires. Emotional dysregulation, poor early stimulation, punitive discipline, and financial unpreparedness are not individual failures. They are predictable outcomes of a system that has never treated parenting preparation as a public responsibility.
What the Programme Delivers
Toivo's Parental Knowledge and Preparedness programme delivers curriculum-led education across six core domains: safe birth preparation, emotional bonding and attachment, early childhood stimulation, appropriate discipline and behaviour management, family communication, and economic planning for parenthood. Sessions are structured for group delivery in community settings, with materials adapted for both literate and non-literate participants.
The programme is designed for integration into existing primary healthcare touchpoints, antenatal care clinics, community health worker home visits, and community group platforms, rather than operating as a standalone service requiring separate infrastructure. This integration model draws on evidence that interventions embedded in existing health-seeking behaviour achieve significantly higher reach than demand-creation programmes.
Who It Targets
The programme serves first-time parents, pregnant women and their partners, antenatal care attendees, and community health workers (CHEWs and CHOs) who can be trained as programme facilitators. It is designed to be delivered at scale through the public primary healthcare system, rather than only through NGO-managed clinics.
The Evidence Base
The economic case for early investment in parenting preparation is well established. Research associated with Nobel economist James Heckman demonstrates that investment in early childhood, which begins with how parents are prepared before a child is born, returns an estimated three to thirteen dollars for every dollar invested, through improved educational outcomes, higher lifetime earnings, and reduced social costs. The highest returns are generated by the earliest investments: the period before and immediately after birth.
Nigeria's existing data reinforces the urgency. Rates of developmental delay, stunting, and school unreadiness in early childhood are among the highest in the world, not primarily because of a shortage of resources at the school level, but because the foundational conditions in the first years of life have not been prioritised.
Toivo has published a full policy brief on parental preparedness before childbirth in Nigeria, including evidence synthesis, gap analysis, and policy recommendations.
Read Our Policy Brief →