Child participation: Child contributors’ reflections on their experiences

African Evaluation Journal

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Child participation: Child contributors’ reflections on their experiences
 
Creator Jansen van Rensburg, Madri S. Jansen van Rensburg, Desiré
 
Subject Evaluation; Child; Participation Evaluation; Child; Participation; Child-friendly documents; SDGs
Description Background: Child participation is critical for evaluation in the light of all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and leaving no one behind. Resilience Analysis Consulting developed a child-friendly version (CFV) of the National Child Participation Framework (NCPF). To ensure participation and optimal use of the document, children were included in all aspects of the document development.Objectives: In this study children reflect on their experiences. This provides insight for document development and more widely into child participation in interventions for children and the evaluation of such interventions. It further highlights the value of child participation and encourages evaluators to include children.Methods: The children who assisted in the development of the document were asked to reflect on the process and their experiences through an open-ended survey. Scales were used to investigate the benefits. Open-ended questions were thematically analysed.Results: The experiences included the following main themes: (1) enjoyment of the project activities, (2) satisfaction with contributions, (3) learning new information, (4) being more aware of children’s rights and participation in society, (5) contributing to other children’s lives and (6) the importance of recognition and being valued. Seeing their ideas, artwork and recommendations in print made them feel that they were taken seriously.Conclusion: A participatory approach when developing materials for children enhances the uptake and dissemination of information. Children contribute unique and valuable perspectives to the evaluation process. Evaluators wrongly assume negative consequences, preventing them from including children, while children report positive outcomes. The process empowered child participants.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-10-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey and group discussions
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/aej.v8i1.475
 
Source African Evaluation Journal; Vol 8, No 1 (2020); 9 pages 2306-5133 2310-4988
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/475/895 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/475/894 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/475/896 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/475/893
 
Coverage — — 8-18; Children
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Madri S. Jansen van Rensburg, Desiré Jansen van Rensburg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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