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As April of 23 is coming up, most institutions have an agenda to work with or for children. This is especially on the agenda of local governments. Would you like to make this year’s April 23rd activities more meaningful in terms of child participation?
For those who said “yes”, we would like to talk about a session and a tool we used in the capacity building trainings on child participation for local governments. In the training, the participants try to make the planned activities for April 23rd more participatory through the tool shown below. The image consists of questions that aim to evaluate the activities that have been carried out or will be planned through the principles of child participation. Municipalities can involve children in the processes of situation analysis, planning or evaluating an activity. Inclusion of children in decision-making processes can be achieved in many ways due to different constraints such as time and human resources. The main point is to move away from processes that doesn’t involve child participation and to endeavor to make the participation more meaningful in every activity.
Now let’s have a look at the image below. We are also attaching some of the questions within the image below. These are some of the questions designed to change our flow of thought in order to disseminate child participation practices. Please feel free to suggest new questions to this list.
– Which children are affected by the activity?
– In which process are children involved?
– How do you involve them?
– Which tools do you use?
– Are these tools convenient?
– Are the instructions adequate?
Not planning by a single unit, by collaboratively
Managers, experts and the people in charge from different departments of a municipality participate in capacity building trainings on child participation for local governments. Because the answer to the question “What are the child-related directorates or departments in municipalities?” is not only the departments related to social services or playgrounds. The services of budget planning, strategy development, human resources, transportation and many other departments also affect children. For this reason, we try to ensure that people from different departments participate in the trainings as much as possible and to take steps to organize child participation as an activity in which children are involved in the entire working process of the municipality rather than a mere activity. We expect all managers and people in charge to ask and think about the questions above.
Please also see our videos “What is Child Impact Assessment?” that we have developed on this subject.
Paying attention to the process as much as the result
Furthermore, the questions above will help you to reflect on the process and avoid focusing only on the results. Child participation is a process. It requires sufficient time, effort and learning to realize meaningful child participation. It is a learning process with children, and the more you experience it, the more meaningful it becomes.
Trust and willpower in children
In order to implement child participation in a meaningful way, it is critical for the organization or individual to reflect on two issues before starting to assess and plan with the set of questions above. They should be aware that they are responsible for the perception of children and the realization of child participation. Because, it is necessary to trust in the potential of children and to demonstrate individual and/or institutional will to realize child participation in order to give meaningful answers to the question set and to take action.
Since the tool was used in the training with municipalities, we have focused on municipalities, but this question set can also be used by civil society organizations, schools and other relevant institutions with necessary adjustments.
In order to plan an activity in your organization or to evaluate an experienced activity, you can come together with all concerned people and discuss it through this question set. Although the first attempt may not be exactly what you expect, every decision and every work you take by seeking answers to these questions will contribute to a more inclusive and participatory world for children.
Click here to download the image of the question set in English.
Click here to learn more about child participation.
We wish you an April 23rd in which we see more participatory practices and efforts to make child participation meaningful!
