Annual Report: Sugira Muryango October 01, 2018 to September 30, 2019

The intervention targets families living in extreme poverty, specifically those classified as Ubudehe 1, which accounts for approximately 375,000 households nationwide. The program aims to promote responsive parenting, reduce violence and harsh punishment towards children, and promote early child development through the behavior change of caregivers of vulnerable households. The Sugira Muryango intervention is delivered by community-based volunteer workers to beneficiaries of the Government of Rwanda's (GOR) flagship social protection program, Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP). A four-arm cluster randomized trial (CRT) will enroll n=1,048 VUP-eligible families with children aged 6-36 months to compare outcomes among children and parents in households receiving: Classic VUP public works (control), Expanded VUP public works (control), Combined Classic VUP public works with Sugira Muryango (treatment), and Combined Expanded VUP public works with Sugira Muryango (treatment). The study aims to assess the effectiveness of Sugira Muryango in promoting responsive parenting, reducing violence and harsh punishment towards children, and promoting early child development. During fiscal year 2019, Sugira Muryango successfully completed Phase II study activities and endline assessments of 1,029 households out of 1,049 households at baseline. Additionally, 536 households completed the 3-month post-intervention booster visit and 533 completed the 6-month post-intervention booster visit. The program continued to strengthen its government relations at the national level through participation in developing the national parenting curriculum and quarterly meetings with the Sugira Muryango advisory board. The engagement with government stakeholders led to letters of support from MIGEPROF, MINALOC, and the Mayors of Nyanza, Ngoma, and Rubavu, as well as a verbal commitment from the National Commission for Children to transition to scale in FY 2020. The expansion of Sugira Muryango to all Ubudehe 1 households in Nyanza, Ngoma, and Rubavu began in August 2019 with funding through LEGO Foundation, ELMA Philanthropies, Wellspring, Grand Challenges Canada, and Echidna Giving. In total, $5.9 million in funding has been secured to expand the program to 10,000 Ubudehe 1 households through the Friends of Family workforce, provide training to local government officials, and build research capacity specifically around gender, father engagement, and implementation science in Rwanda. The findings from this operational research will influence the country-wide expansion of evidence-based ECD services linked to the social protection system of Rwanda.