Child rights practitioners meet to discuss a new Training Guide on children’s participation

May 2014

On 21 May 2014, about 20 child rights practitioners met at the Institute of Education, London for a productive day of sharing best practices on children’s participation in the INGO Children’s Participation Forum.

IMG_20140521_121837

A wall to visualise the training sessions for children’s participation.

 

The day started with a workshop facilitated by Dr Vicky Johnson and Karen Baker, co-authors of the Children and Young People’s Participation (CYPP) Training Workshop Guide, recently published by ChildHope.

The Guide is designed to support partners and other organisations to actively involve children and young people in the design, delivery and evaluation of their programmes. Piloted in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Peru, the manual includes many practical examples of how children can enrich decision making, improve outcomes and be powerful forces for change.

Dr Johnson and Ms Baker delivered the workshop to Forum members, which introduced their Training Guide through exploring the cross-cutting themes and each training session. By taking part on the 5-day training participants will acquire a comprehensive understanding of the issues surrounding children and young people’s participation (CYPP). Indeed, the sessions will answer the following:

  • what is CYPP?
  • what are the models of CYPP? including Hart’s ladder, which looks at children’s involvement in decision-making processes
  • what is the contextual analysis, related to policy, local institutions, culture and beliefs on CYPP?
  • what are the ethical framework and issues of child protection in CYPP?
  • how can gender, age and disability be a barrier to CYPP?
  • which are the mapping tools to use for engaging with the different stakeholders?
  • which power dynamics have to be challenged and counted for to reach meaningful communication and collaboration?
  • which case study of CYPP to use?
  • how to efficiently develop community-based indicators for evaluating participation?
  • what is the action planning for future CYPP?

Although both Dr Johnson and Ms Baker acknowledged that adults and children completing this training represents only the first step towards child participation, they stressed how important this first step is. This Guide strives towards providing greater opportunities for children and young people to be part of the solution in matters affecting their lives.