Participation
Presentation & best practices from the CFCI network
Informing and involving children and youth and respecting their views and experiences; recognizing children and youth as partners and as individual human beings, rights-holders and equal, active citizens.
Child participation is a fundamental right of every child and lies at the heart of building a child-friendly city or community. Their active engagement is essential if the policies, services and facilities that they use or that affect them, are to reflect and address their concerns, ideas and priorities.
Children and youth can be involved in different ways. Through informal mechanisms, such as social media, surveys, petitions, focus groups, youth groups or local meetings, or through more formal systems, such as school and youth councils or youth parliaments.
Regardless of format, participatory mechanisms must be age-appropriate, ethical and adhere to basic quality standards. They must be made accessible to all children and every effort must be made to reach the most marginalized children that, because of their situation, are often overlooked.
[Please note that inclusion here does not necessarily imply endorsement by UNICEF.]
