Child-friendly participatory research tools
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This paper summarises Save the Children UK's experience in facilitating children and young people's participation in PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) processes, highlighting in particular the experiences of Vietnam and Honduras, and drawing on insights from Lesotho, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the work of a Guyanese NGO. It discusses the effectiveness of a range of approaches, highlights challenges, outlines learning points, and raises questions about the impact and cost-benefit trade-off of children and young people's participation in PRSPs. It explores the difficulties and challenges of involving children, and argues that children and young people can make a significant contribution to developing effective strategies to tackle poverty within PRSP processes. Some lessons learnt include: Children and young people need to be well informed about the opportunities for influencing PRSPs, the challenges, the process, its aims, their role, the time required, the channels of decision-making and the context of PRSPs; Effective participation takes considerable time; Feedback needs to be given to the children involved; The most marginalised children need to be included; Consideration needs to be given to compensating children for the cost of their involvement; Adults should be involved too, such as local decision-makers, family members, teachers etc.; Partnerships need to be developed to share expertise; International organisations should work with indigenous civil society organisations, or local officials, on participatory initiatives to increase their access to PRSP decision-making processes, rather than undercutting their role.
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The report is the result of research into the impact of children's participation on development programmes and how such participation can be facilitated. The report also assesses how large international organisations with complex systems and hierarchical management structures can respond sensitively and flexibly to the challenges that will emerge when children are given a voice. It brings together the findings of a literature review of current thinking about children's participation and its evaluation with a field study undertaken in three different countries (Ecuador, India and Kenya). It is also enriched by discussion at a one-day conference in London in November 2003, which was hosted by Plan UK to review findings from the research. The report raises questions about the way that participation is understood by development agencies, arguing that the conceptualisation of children's participation by each organisation will reflect their underlying philosophies. It also focuses on the changes - both positive and negative - that children's participation may bring about, and discusses various issues relating to evaluation. Possible tools and methods are described and consideration is given to the manner in which evaluation activities are conducted. Particular emphasis is also given to ethical issues in relation to evaluation practice. The report considers the challenges for agencies in seeking to develop children's participation further, and the introduction of a participatory approach to evaluation itself.
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Global knowledge of the experience and perspectives of displaced children is limited. Much of the knowledge is researcher-centred and does not reflect the perspectives of the children, other documentary evidence is anecdotal. Based on the author's previous experience and secondary sources in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Peru, this paper examines some of the key questions and issues regarding the participation of refugee and displaced children in societal and programmatic processes. It begins by reviewing some of the structural, operational and conceptual reasons why children's participation is, as a rule, highly restricted in refugee and displaced communities, and concludes by considering some recent development in the field. It includes examples from Cambodia, Laos, South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo.