Participation needs to be meaningful!
Posted June 16th, 2008 by Addisalem
Participation needs to be looked at as a process, whereby functional children/youth parliaments and local councils elected by children/youth will be set up to speak on behalf of children/youth from grass root level to local government to national government and ensure the inclusion of children/youth’s issues into the decision making process. There should be a structured way of ensuring regular and meaningful children/youth participation.
There is a need for a child-friendly approach which enables children/youth to contribute to the best of their abilities e.g. through access to good information and the use of venues, procedures and support that encourages rather than hinders children’s involvement. The documents from different conferences and engagements need to be disseminated before hand. Knowledge is vital to participation and to the ability to make critical and informed decisions.
Participation is not just one more ‘attachment’ or ingredient that can be added to the mix. Bringing in young people to meetings at the 11th hour and without much information and preparation will only be for ceremonial reasons. “Visibility does not equal participation or empowerment”, and “participation that does not place some power in the hands of young people is not participation at all – “it is tokenism and manipulation” young people call for the space, the voice and the choice!
There needs to be support for young people; If there is real commitment about working with young people, then there should be support Resources: financial, human and organizational. An ethical approach and a commitment to transparency, honesty and accountability needs to be there. There is a need to know who is participating in meetings, the selection process, and representation. And also a need for a non discriminatory approach that ensures that all children/youth regardless of their age, gender, education, language, ethnicity, class, etc have an equal opportunity to be involved.
There is also the need for an approach in which children’s protection rights within participation are properly safeguarded. Whenever the children/youth are making a point and forwarding their views, it should be taken as their view and they should be able to exercise their right to speech.
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A top down and a bottom up......
I agree with you that children and youth need to be given the voice to speak, even within the family. I believe that this can be done by using the different NGO's, organizations, etc. working with children and youth to incorporate trainings to families with themes like "The child knows"...emphsizing the advantages of listening to the perspectives of children and youth. Additionally Representative children and youth parliaments need to be set so that these voices are heard. Thus a top down process from governments(like the etablishment of child & youth parliaments) and a bottom up approach of involving families need to be set to make children and youth participate in a meaningful manner
TIME HAS COME FOR CHILDREN TO BE SEEN AND HEARD
There seems to be a new trend that is afflicting our society, perhaps as a reaction against the “every space is my space” mentality that has permeated the culture as of late. This new trend is the growing number of socialization who are turning suddenly “anti-child.”
The supposed reason for this backlash is the unruly and at times disruptive behavior of our youngest citizens. Most of which is blamed on poor, “permissive” parenting, as well as society’s idea that children are “mobile” so they can go “everywhere” without caution.
In my day, children (including myself) were taught to be “seen, and not heard” at least in formal, social situations. Parents are outraged, citing their children are just “being kids,” and acting like little darlings (even if said darling is screaming during the Rated-R movie).
What are the attitudes towards children in other countries? Is the general rule that children should be “seen and not heard?” or are they to go out with parents, voices loud, acting in any manner they so please (in this instance, I am talking about children – aged 4 years + and above, who should have a general understanding of “manners” and good behavior.)
But at the same time we must be cognizant of the changing times, where the repercussions of adults have diverse impacts to the lives of the little darlings. These more so in the rising cases of child led families. The onus is on us not to look at children’s role as that of being “seen” and not “heard” but institutionalizing their voices in such a way that they are not bearers of burdens for sins that are not theirs. It is in the recognition of their voice and place in society, that we can indict the society that allows these unequal relations to exist. As we mark this years Day of the African child, let us put the voice of the child at the fore front, and in it commemorate the spirit of Hector Pieterson and others like him martyred in such for a just society.
i just read this article
i just read this article online this morning and it causes great concern when you take this situation and you analyse it and you wonder where are those positive rolemodels for our youth.Yes we want our youth to lead.What i find quite disturbing as a South African is the amount of manipulation thats led down from the bigger structures and a image is being presented that i feel is not postive for our youth..From this article you can already see how these young minds are shaped and where does this come from? From the elders i see too often no form of leadership parents are drinking with their kids.Im asking myself how do we correct this how do we make people see wrong and not try and justify our wrongs!
Last month's spate of xenophobic attacks, in which children often played an active role, shouldn't have come as a surprise.
A new Wits University study has found South African children are intolerant of social groups they don't belong to.
Professor Philip Frankel selected 20 schools in Gauteng, including
schools directly affected by xenophobic violence, schools that service
areas affected by the attacks and schools that weren't affected in any
way.
The study assessed the attitudes of children aged 12 to 19.
"We wanted to see what the attitude was towards people that are not
'your people'. And whether this differs across national, cultural,
religious or racial groups.
The findings so far aren't encouraging.
"I am concerned about South Africa," Frankel said.
"We have too many deeply entrenched differences.
"The most serious has been the xenophobic violence, which resulted in
the displacement of tens of thousands of people. That is a small
proportion compared to the number of foreigners in the country."
Frankel said although there was no reliable data on how many foreigners
there were in the country, political scientists suspected it could be
as high as 5 million.
Frankel said he believed the only way to deal with intolerance was
through children because they were the only group outside the labour
market; they had highly impressionable minds that were able to accept
new ideas; and school environments were small and easily manageable to
implement programmes for change.
Frankel said while the study wasn't completed yet, he anticipated that
diversified schools, mainly in the inner cities, would be the least
xenophobic because pupils came into contact with people from all
cultures.
"Kids have very strong opinions about who belongs and who doesn't. They
tend to cling together. But the groups that are disliked will depend on
who you're speaking to."
The one interesting finding, said Frankel, was that 90 percent of
children believed South Africa was becoming a worse place to live in.
"There are very few good comments from children; most of them are negative," said Frankel.
Frankel found that there were very few effective diversity programmes aimed at children.
Through his study he aims to design a programme for schools that will cater for all age groups.
"The only problem is that schools are so different, so we will need to customise a programme for every school," he said.
What the kids had to say
These are some of the comments made by children:
KNOWLEDGE EMPOWERMENT IS VITAL TO PARTICIPATION
I just read the Article and i am deeply attached with the content and the background of the Article with regards to Knowledge is vital to participation and to the ability to make critical and informed decisions.
I strongly believe that, children and youth should have acces to participation at all levels of development (social, Economic and Political) and our opinions should be respected by our leaders.
In my capacity as a young activist, it about time children and youth will realize that they are the key actors of change raher than allowing themselves as an agent of political manupulation notwithstanding children recruited as child soldiers and youth involved in political violence.
It is indeed an established fact that, young people run the world.
This means that, the power lies in the hands of the young people to make informed decisions but the question is, " Do we have young people well empowered with knowledge?''
If Yes, why is that children and youth are being manupulated by leaders to their own advantage?
Children and youth participation becomes effective when there is common platform for young people o delibrate and dialogue on issues of common interest with a knowledge support base that can engage them effectively in their participation.
Young people need a common platform like a youth parliament at national and regional level, online discussion platforms as well as young people's meetings etc.
BY MALIK JELEEL-GHANA
What are our practical reccomendations?
Peace be with you all the times.
Dear Addise, I just read your article and I found your ideas very powerful and valuable. Honestly speaking, I agree with the idea of considering participation as a process. Hence we will consider it not only as an end, rather as a means in which we will ensure its meaningfulness and the role that children/young people are playing in that specific process.
With this regard, I have some more ideas to share with the group. When we are always asking about childrens'/youth participation to be meaningful and effective, what kinds of practical recommendations can we come up with? I'm sure we have so many good practices with this regard and it will be nice for everyone of us to share from the success stories of our brothers and sisters who have made their efforts to realize meaningful youth participation. In doing so, we can create a realistic link among what we are talkin about, what we are doing and what we are expecting. As young people let's start to talk about things that are easily identified as things that can be taken implemented without any further analysis. If we make our idea xchange based on practical experiences, our focus will be on our achievements, hence very rewarding and encouraging. Rather if we always talk about the ideas that ought to be realized, we may (or may not) focus on the channels to do so, the necessary technical and financial needs, the ... and the... Before that ( or simultaneously), let's see what kinds of things have been started or attempted before... so we may not need "to reinvent the wheel again"... if there is something done before, there should be sth we can take... In such a way I believe that we'll be a bit innovative to see things differently then become successful to stand for ourselves. Next time I'll start from my own (organizational) success.
Happy to hear your comments