Resources

In spite of children and young people being involved in many aspects of community life, social policy in the UK often neglects their interests. This book argues that contrary to conventional adult wisdom children and young people are competent to take part in collective decision making and that it is essential that they do so. Practical examples from Save the Children's work are provided to show ways in which children and young people can be encouraged to participate and have a real say in how things are done.

This book presents issues and challenges facing those facilitating children's and young people's participation. The contributors come from a wide range of backgrounds including NGOs in development, children's agencies, academic insitutions and governments and provide case studies from the UK, Eastern Europe, asia, Africa, the Carribean and central and north America. Chapter 1 gives and overview to the main issues and concepts and chapters 2-7 each expand on a particular theme. The main issues discussed and analysed include: the ethical dilemmas facing professionals, the process and methods used in partlicipatory research and planning with children, the inter-relationship between culture and children's participation, considerations for instiutions and the key qualities of a participation programme.

This anthology provides insights, dilemmas and approaches from the practice of development assistance, based on the experiences of USAID. The practical meanings of participation are explored in contexts ranging from economic reform and environmental planning to conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance. The book is split into three broad sections: À Participation as an End - considers ways in which development assistance can broaden peoples access to economic opportunity and to their society's decision making processes À Participation as a Means - describes some participatory approaches used in development programmes. They single out two key features: listening more broadly and forming genuine partnerships À In part three the focus is on issues and insights about "fixing the system" to facilitate the fuller engagement of development partners and greater flexibility, transparency, and responsiveness to the end user. The papers selected reflect some of the innovations, issues and candidly expressed concerns that have marked the agencies reforms. Finally a conference paper prepared by USAID staff in late 1998 outlines the Agency's organisational change process so far and distills seven lessons learned enroute.

This teachers' guide (118 pages including worksheets and assessment sheets) comes with an 18-minute-long video showing how the pack was used in some of the 30 schools involved in developing it. It is a joint project from 5 leading development agencies in the U.K.: ActionAid, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children. It is co-funded by the Department for International Development (DfID). It focuses on how to facilitate and assess active global citizenship in the classroom. It provides a structure for students to manage their own learning and allows them to move from thinking about issues that are important to them, to planning and participating in action, and reflecting on their on performance and assessing their work. A range of innovative and participatory activities are included to promote a skills-based approach rather than a content-based approach, so they can be used within different subject areas and with all ages. The aim of the guide is to provide an experience of being able to make a difference through action; to develop skills of enquiry, participation and reflection; and to develop an understanding of the world as a global community, and to discuss the political, economic, environmental and social implications of this. The methodology is based on PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) with visualization techniques, practical exercises and games.