Resources

This paper reflects on issues related to participatory evaluation in the context of child-centred community development and raises questions that it believes community development organisations need to consider. In reflecting on these questions it draws upon the author's experience as technical manager of PLAN International. The focus of the work was mainstreaming the participation of children of different ages into development processes. The paper details basic considerations to guide evaluation and looks at missed opportunities and the importance of shared values. It goes on to consider how evaluation should be built into a project from the beginning and not just considered at the end, and also looks at how to engage all partners and the risk of unintended consequences. Examples are given from Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, El Salvador and India.

This paper presents a range of initiatives the authors are involved in within the field of children's rights and participation. It begins by defining the rights based approach and needs based approach to development and goes on to give details of three projects. The first project is PLAN International Indonesia's training and capacity strengthening for its field staff aimed at promoting a shift towards addressing child rights in its programmes and projects. The paper outlines the tangible benefits for the children and the impact on their lives, for example in family relationships.|The second project is a DFID Innovations Fund research one looking at the ways in which the impacts of development projects on children are addressed in monitoring and evaluation systems, with pilot projects in Nepal and South Africa. It discusses the use of organisational mapping in both these pilot projects and the findings to come out of them|The final case study is about the monitoring and evaluation of the Saying Power Scheme in the UK. Rather than happening at the end of the projects, the monitoring and evaluation process runs parallel to it. The article describes the confidence lines and ôHö method used and concludes with challenges the projects faced

This article reports on the use of REFLECT by the Oxford Development Education Centre (ODEC), as part of The Learning from Life Project (LFL), with members of various African Caribbean communities living in Oxford. Participatory methods used to provide an opportunity for younger and older people to learrn from each other, are described, including a timeline of the histroy of racism in the city.

The article explores the processes and structures of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which is a cross-sectoral consortium of services into a holistic women and child development scheme. The authors argue that one of the biggest obstacles experienced during the implementation of the ICDS programme was the poor level of community participation. The article goes on the explain scaling up participation in a pilot experiment and the process undertaken. Based on the experience and lessons learnt during the pilot experiment, a framework was developed for scaling up the use of participatory methodologies in other districts under the ICDS programme. Building on reflections from the process, the authors conclude by summarising the problems, challenges and implications identified during the process.

This guidebook is part of a research toolkit produced by the International Save the Children Alliance to support the UN Study on Violence against Children (the other part is called So you want to involve children in research? A toolkit supporting children's meaningful and ethical participation in research relating to violence against children). This part of the toolkit is based on the experience of Save the Children developed to facilitate children's meaningful participation in the process leading up to, and including, the 2002 UN General Assembly Special Session for Children. It deals with involving childrean in formal consultation and policy processes and covers the following main areas: organizing consultaions with children; planning preparatory workshops with and for children; having children on delegations; the role of adults in creating an enabling environment for participation; ensuring that children are safe and protected; and ensuring follow-up. It also has an extensive guide to other resources.