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Thirty five participants representing various Save the Children offices came together for a ‘Capacity building workshop
facilitating Participation of Boys and Girls from a Rights based approach in Education for Save the Children in Africa and MENA’ from 23-27 September 2008 at Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop represented Save the Children’s commitment to take forward the movement on child participation in education in Africa and MENA regions. The workshop attempted to create an
understanding of children’s right to ethical and meaningful participation and its implications for proper planning, implementation, methods used and particularly, advocacy within education
programmes. During the workshop, participants were able to internalise the concepts and main components of a rights based approach. The UNCRC, its articles and principles were linked with
the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), which was highlighted as an effective instrument for advocacy for children’s rights in Africa. Using the rights based approach
as a base, participants were helped to understand how to integrate child participation within all steps of the programme cycle. Special emphasis was placed upon evaluation, learning and feedback
within the programme cycle, and children’s participation within it. Participants left with a common understanding that child participation is a concept that needs to be internalised.
It is an ideology that needs to be followed within our own personal lives as well. Moreover, very often, understanding meaningful and ethical child participation is more about unlearning what we think
we know about children, than learning new concepts. There are no models of child participation, but only good practices. We may not be always able to recreate them, but we can replicate or adapt their
principles based on our varying contexts.
People sit outside their home which was destroyed by an earthquake in San Pedro de Poas, 40 km (25 mi) north of San Jose January 8, 2009. A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake ...
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Capacity Building
Workshop facilitating the participation of boys and girls from a rights based approach in education [Adobe PDF, 1154 Kb]
