PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 11 Institutionalising children's participation in development

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 11 Institutionalising children's participation in development Michael Edwards Introduction effective development planning; and third, to explore how SCF has tried to promote The experience that Save the Children Fund children's participation in its own work and address the difficulties that have arisen along (SCF-UK) has had with the use of participatory the way. research and planning techniques with children and young people has shown that involving children in programme development is possible Convincing staff of the underlying rationale for and practical, though challenging and difficult. children's participation has been seen as a prerequisite for encouraging the proper use of But why involve children in the first place? Is PRA with children; but PRA with children has also been a useful and less threatening way into this simply a way of getting information from the wider debate. What follows is an honest yet another special interest group to feed into account of the realities of promoting a planning processes controlled by outsiders, or is there something more fundamental at stake? `Children's Agenda' in a large NGO We already know that PRA with adults can bureaucracy (SCF-UK, 1995). either be an empowering process, or an extractive ...