Co-designing “Familia Bora”: a father-inclusive parenting intervention for couples with young children in Mwanza, Tanzania

This paper describes the development of a multicomponent father-inclusive parenting intervention, Familia Bora (“good family”), designed to strengthen caregiving practices of both fathers and mothers, couples’ relationships dynamics, parental mental health, gender equity, and ultimately early childhood development. We followed a multi-phase, community-based, and iterative process to co-design this intervention in Mwanza, Tanzania through a research-practice partnership. We began with a systematic review of father-inclusive interventions followed by qualitative formative research to identify priority fatherhood behaviors and contextual determinants of fathering in the local Tanzanian context. In collaboration with local partners, we then co-designed intervention content to address these various dimensions of fatherhood from a family system, gender-transformative, and developmental perspective. We piloted and iteratively refined individual sessions through 54 rapid pretesting cycles with 381 parents (53% mothers, 47% fathers) across 13 communities and incorporated participant feedback to continuously improve content and delivery and ensure cultural relevance and acceptability. This process resulted in a structured, manualized curriculum for a community-based group parenting program for fathers and their partners with young children aged 0-2 years that holistically promotes nurturing care, couples’ relationships, caregiver mental health, and gender equality. Overall, this study showcases a systematic, evidence-based, and community-engaged approach to co-designing a father-inclusive parenting program. The resulting intervention shows strong potential to engage fathers and improve family-wide outcomes for fathers, mothers, and young children. Considering our rigorous design process and promising initial results, further implementation and evaluation research is needed to assess its feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness. • Employed a multi-phase, iterative process to develop a father-inclusive intervention. • Co-designed intervention with local partners, community members, and parents. • Iteratively refined sessions based on pretesting with fathers and mothers. • Developed a structured curriculum using theory, evidence, and community insights. • Findings indicate the intervention shows promise and warrants further evaluation.