The Children’s Rights Unit is implementing a three-year project revolving around the intersection between child participation rights, and the global and regional development agenda as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and African regional development frameworks (ARDFs), particularly the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063, and the AU Agenda for an Africa Fit for Children (Agenda 2040). The overall goal of the proposed project is to promote (and increase public awareness on the importance of) child participation in national, regional and global development processes in Africa. This goal will be achieved through three main interventions: research for evidence and knowledge building on the standards and practice on child participation in development governance; evidence-based advocacy for child participation in development governance; and capacity-strengthening to enhance the implementation of child participation in the frameworks.

Specifically, the project will include a regional study on child participation in development frameworks in Africa; a child-focused study on what children think about participation; capacity building for key stakeholders; generating contextually relevant tools for implementation and monitoring of child participation in development governance; and facilitating dialogue on the manner and means of ensuring child participation in governance. The project seeks to contextualise child participation in the implementation of the SDGs to Africa. By utilising a select number of African countries, the study will be able to augment region-specific challenges through extrapolation of the findings to other countries that would not have been included in the process. The study will generate the evidential basis for the capacity building and advocacy elements of the project.