Clare Hanbury

UK Children and Young People Participate in a Consultation on the Services Provided for Them by Their Local Council

Nottingham Children and Young People Trust showed innovative leadership and strong accountability to children and young people by running a two event where the children and young people first had the space to identify the issues affecting them and agreeing their top participation priorities before being joined by the managers and leaders to agree action plans with clear responsibilities and time frames.

This video tells the story.

Children's Participation in Health Education and Health Promotion

I was very pleased to co-present a webinar yesterday to 19 of Save the Children's staff from their School Health and Nutrition team and to some of their Programme Managers. My presentation focused on Children's Participation in Health Education and Health Promotion and this was followed up by two excellent case studies from Mali and from Pakistan. It was thrilling to be show how an approach I co-created at The Child-to-Child Trust many years ago is now supporting the development of an exciting programme reaching thousands of children! I wanted to make the presentation available to this group and to you on this blog and I will be tackling some of the questions that arose from it over the coming weeks.

The presentation covers the following issues:

1. A definition of participation (as a starting point - it is ALWAYS useful to develop your own consensus about what children's participation means among key stakeholders)

2. Distinctions between health education and health promotion. (Children's participation in health combines health promotion activities as part of the process of teaching health education.)

3. Two examples of models that seek to set out levels of participation that are useful to use in a training setting to clarify the level that your project seeks to attain. These models help users understand the shift in power dynamics between adults and children as they undertake participatory projects.

4. Key points that come out of a story of an encounter I had with a child in Columbia that clearly demonstrates why it is beneficial for children to participate in health and development.

5. The modern context in which participation is practiced and promoted notably the Declaration of Primary Health Care at Alma Arta (1978) that includes participation as a key principle...

The people have the right and duty to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care.

...and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The internationally agreed framework underpinned by the principles of protection, provision and participation.

6. Extracts from selected documents of key players on the international development stage that set out the importance of children's participation

7. Three frameworks to use to understand and support the implementation of participation at field level.These include an approach based on the 6-step Child to Child approach, an approach called Design for Change and reference to an approach used to achieve Community/school Led Total Sanitation. As with the definition it is more useful to design and develop an approach that works for your project than to try to adopt an approach. Many of the approaches above have elements in common.

8. An example and demonstration of a tool I call, 'The Opportunities Chart' that has been used with groups of children, adults and mixed groups to initiate and/or deepen discussions about health priorities in families and communities and gather ideas about what children can do to contribute to solutions.

9. The presentation concludes with the description of a diagnostic tool I use to help analyse if a project or programme is not working smoothly.

Lastly there is a link to the toolbox on this blog as this has many practitioner resources and references that can be of interest to people working on participation related work.

Enjoy! Click the link here to download the presentation. For full notes on each slide please contact me.

Please send me any comments or questions either in the box below or on email. I woud love to hear from you!

 

Guest Post by Sarah Huxley: Adolescent Girls and Safe Spaces

Hi readers and Happy New Year! I have been quiet for a few weeks and this reflect a wildly busy time away from my desk! First in Mozambique working for DANIDA looking at how children can be mobilised to contribute to under-nutrition in the country and second having a GREAT time with my huge family over the festive season. Its refreshed and exhausted me in equal measure. I am ready for the new year and excited by the work ahead.

One of the things I would like to do more of this year is to invite associates to publish posts on my blog. Here is the first of these from Sarah Huxley. It focuses on adolescent girls and safe spaces. Many of you may know about or even use a tool I've described many times to  diagnosing potential blocks to development projects. The tool asks users to assess four categories of components: knowledge, skills, motivation/inspiration and environment. When one of these is left out of or neglected in a project there is far less chance that the project will succeed (like a bus cannot move forward without all four wheels). In her article, Sarah focuses on a much neglected theme of providing girls with a type of environments for them to develop and feel able to participate. A link to Sarah is at the bottom of her post. Enjoy!

Adolescent girls and safe spaces: do we really know what we mean when we refer to these in international development?

Adolescent girls – a tremendous force for change within the ever turning wheel of development. Often girls aged 10-19 are labelled as agents of change in poverty reduction. I believe that understanding adolescent girls’ mobility and use of space (both formally and informally) is paramount in order to create an enabling environment, which can allow individuals/groups of girls to imagine a different life experience, and subsequently, act upon that vision.

The purpose of these musings, is therefore to emphasise the importance of creating ‘safe spaces’ as a first step in programming for adolescent girls; and to encourage us practitioners to really explore what we mean (and do) when we refer to a ‘safe space.’ 

An article by Madfis et al. (2010) from Save the Children notes that ‘safe spaces’ are a common component of humanitarian assistance, whereby they are often used as a stepping stone for restarting formal

The Participation of Children and Young People: What's It All About (3/3)

I really enjoyed talking to Adam Fletcher recently about the dynamics of children's participation. We were talking about the various models that exist out there to help us understand it better. Modules like Roger Hart's Ladder or the Wheel of Participation that features in this pdf published by the Tear Fund, An Introduction to Children's Participation.

Adam and I are trying to distill the various 'levels of participation' to three levels. We think that this idea is beginning to feel useful. What do you think?

Three levels of adult-child relationships

1. Adults work for children and take their views seriously         

Adults believe in consulting children and young people and keeping them involved. The adults take the lead, inform children about the situation, and seek their opinion. They try to give children and young people a sense of ownership over some aspects of the process and under their supervision. The adults are in control over the process and they keep it flexible to incorporate the suggestions and concerns of the children and young people.

2. Adults lead and work with children      

Adults initiate a project and are willing to share the decision making with children and young people. It is a collaborative interaction where they make a joint effort. Here too children and adults may take on different roles, yet those roles are defined by mutual consent.

3. Adults and children working and learning together in partnership            

Adults and children develop a partnership which they jointly initiate and direct. This includes partnership over the idea, the process and the outcome. They may play different roles, based on mutual consent. This relationship is possible only when the adults and children are empowered and are able to pool their respective strengths to achieve a common objective.

Although this could be seen as a phased approach from a less participatory model so one that is more so, what is more important is the quality of the relationships sustained within each of the levels.

We have not yet done enough thinking about how the facilitators of these processes need to be supported in order to establish and develop their skills.

The Participation of Children and Young People: Whats It All About (2/3)

I am trying to develop a set of FAQ's and answers about Children's Participation and I would love your ideas and input on this. Adam Fletcher - perhaps you could come in and help me on this! (my third post on this topic is lifted from a conversation with Adam). My colleagues all over the world who are doing child-to-child work may also have something to say!

What is it?

Children's participation is about enabling ALL children to have the chance to participate regardless of gender, age and ability.

Is it a right?

Children have the right to participate in matters that affect their lives. Participation is one of the four key principles in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): survival, development, protection and participation. Article 12 is the most significant for participation.  In order for participation to be effective, children should be given opportunities to participate and express their views in a format they choose; adults have a responsibility to listen to and consider children’s views when decisions are being made that affect them

What has to be in place for it to work?

Like many processes designed to change and develop people, there are four key elements to successful participation:

•          All adults and children involved need relevant knowledge

•          All adults and children need relevant skills

The Participation of Children and Young people: Whats It All About (1/3)

I am musing today about the participation of children and young people. This typology is based on Reddy & Ratna's Scenarios of Adult-Children Engagement. (Reddy, N. & K. Ratna (eds.) (2002) A Journey in Children’s Participation, The Concerned for Working Children, Bangalore, India. www.workingchild.org)

When in practice you thinking about overlaying the top levels of participation 8-13 (keep reading) one can begin to understand the potency of  these ideas on child health - say on whether or how we get children involved in preventing malaria or HIV or here in the UK - obesity or teen pregnancy. Give it a go and tell me what you think.

 Scenarios of Adult-Children Engagement

1    Active resistance   
Adults actively resist the participation of young people. Some of them feel that young people should not be burdened with participation. Some believe that young people do not have the capacity to participate and hence cannot make informed choices. Some hold the view that young people are easy to manipulate and hence their participation may be used only to further adult agendas. Adults in this category can take strong positions against children’s participation, mobilise support, and lobby against it.

2    Hindrance   
Adults hinder children’s participation. They may block opportunities for young people and discourage participation. There are others in this category that may voice their support to children’s participation, but the manner in which they interact with young people may actually hinder it. They may undermine the ability of young people or make them feel inadequate and reluctant to participate.

3    Manipulation   
Adults manipulate young people to further their own agendas. They may coach young people to voice what they want or cleverly interpret what young peoples say/do to suit their own interests. Sometimes this manipulation is obvious, sometimes subtle. There are other adults who manipulate young people in order to ‘get the best performance’ out of them supposedly done in the best interest of the child. Facilitators need to be vigilant against manipulating young people.

4    Decoration   
Adults treat young people more or less like decorative objects, where they are expected to add colour to the proceedings. For example, when young people are called to present bouquets or sing songs –and not much is made of their presence.

5    Tokenism   
Adults involve young people to get status from their presence. They use the presence of young people to be counted as ‘advocates of children’s rights’ and to be politically correct.

6    Tolerance   
Adults bear with the notion of participation to fulfil someone else’s agenda. Adults may undertake consultative exercises with young people without truly valuing or crediting the process or the outcome.

7    Indulgence   
Adults find children’s participation ‘cute’ and ‘interesting’ and are willing to provide limited spaces for young people to voice their opinions. They prompt young people to speak up and try to keep the environment friendly. They listen to the opinions expressed by children with interest, but do follow through with seriousness. These are mostly one time events and little of consequence happens from such ‘participation’.

8    Children assigned but informed:
Adults work with children with seriousness. They decide on what needs to be done, and keep young people informed. They encourage them to be active and guide children to implement the task. They do not expect young people’s input into the larger design of the process.

9    Children consulted and informed   
Adults believe in consulting young people and keeping them involved. The adults take the lead, inform the young people about the situation, and seek their opinion. They try to give young people a sense of ownership over some aspects of the process and under their supervision. The adults are in control over the process and they keep it flexible to incorporate the suggestions and concerns of the young people.

10    Adult initiated, shared decisions with children   
Adults initiate a project and are willing to share the decision making with young people. It is a collaborative interaction where they make a joint effort. Here too children and adults may take on different roles, yet those roles are defined by mutual consent.

11    Children – initiated, shared decisions with adults   
Young people and their organisations take the initiative and invite adults to collaborate. Young people and adults are involved in joint decision-making. They share ownership of the process and outcomes. Within the collaboration, young people and adults take on different roles defined by mutual consent.

12    Children initiated and directed   
Young people and their organisations are in control and they may or may not involve adults. Even then, they work out the way adults are to participate. Young people continue to keep the process under their control and have ownership.

13    Jointly initiated and directed by children and adults   
Adults and children develop a partnership which they jointly initiate and direct. This includes partnership over the idea, the process and the outcome. They may play different roles, based on mutual consent. This relationship is possible only when the adults and children are empowered and are able to pool their respective strengths to achieve a common objective.