International perspectives on the participation of children and young people in the Global South

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a study exploring children’s participation and protection rights. The research was conducted by the International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP) – a multi-sectoral partnership, involving academic institutions, non-government organisations, and young people in five countries. Although funding came from a Canadian federal agency, partners adopted a decolonial approach to break down inequitable power dynamics. This approach ensured the usage of contextually relevant methods and that children’s voices were heard. This paper reports on findings in Brazil, China, and South Africa, where participatory methodologies were used, to explore how young people and adults conceptualise the experience of ‘participating together.’ Our findings show that there is no single conceptualisation of participation that fits the different contexts where the ICCRP worked. In China, the emphasis is on education and respect for parents’ decisions about their lives; in South Africa, it is on respect and duty to elders and community; while in Brazil, participation relates to ‘protagonism’ where there is a rhetoric of young people’s autonomy in public policy. However, in all cases, intergenerational relations are dynamic and evolve over time. Additionally, individuals who experience meaningful participation in public spaces, change their attitude to participation in the private sphere.

KEYWORDS:

• Child and youth participation
• children’s rights
• Brazil
• China
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

The co-authors greatly appreciate the key informants and all the children who participated for their valuable perspectives and time. The ICCRP’s international Child & Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC) advised the project (Asiphe-isipho Dywili, Zukhanye Mjilana, Cleyton Costa Lima, Mayara Costa, Haley Marion McLean, Jessica Travers, Reshma Shiwcharran, Ola Rzeszutek, and two Chinese young people (who chose to remain anonymous). In addition to the authors and the CYAC, the ICCRP project was undertaken by researchers from Ryerson University (Reah (H.J.) Shin, and Amanda Mayhew), Lakehead University (Sonja Grover), McGill University (Mónica Ruiz-Casares), University of Cape Town (Natasha Hendricks), the University of Edinburgh (Kay Tisdall and Javita Narang, Childhood & Youth Studies Research Group), and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Jana Tabak (PUC/Rio; UERJ), CIESPI/PUC-Rio: Eduarda Sampaio, Thaís de Carvalho, Renata M.B. do Couto and Monica Figueiredo).

This paper was supported by Vanessa Zufelt and the Office of the Dean, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This paper refers to ‘children and young people’ throughout. Given the spectrum of participants in our research, this discussion specifies children only when discussing those under 18 in accordance with the definition of a child in article one of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Identification of young people refers to those 15–24 years of age, which reflects the UN (1981) definition of youth (p. 15, FN 8).

2. The common term of Global South is not consistently suitable given the diversities and particular realities of countries but its use reflects the ICCRP’s approach to participation and power relations between adults and children and young people (Collins et al., 2020a, FN 1, p.1).

3. Details of some Canada findings can be found in Collins, Sinclair, and Zufelt (2020).

4. The Tri-Agency Financial Administration (2020) outlines: ‘Agency grant funds must not be used to pay compensation to: grant recipients or individuals who conduct research independently as part of the terms and conditions of their employment, including but not limited to researchers in academia … ’.

5. ‘To us this means that we are mindful of those who are marginalized in society because of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, etc. We will take action when we hear things that are discriminatory, offensive or oppressive. If we hear something, we will address it with each other and have a conversation about it to learn and grow. We will not use offensive or discriminatory language.’ Extract from the glossary produced by the CYAC for use in the field; Child and youth advisory committee of the ICCRP (2017).

6. The three countries are part of an international alliance – BRICS – used to coordinate their positions and counter the hegemony of the north in the international system. BRICS also supports economic growth and cooperation in low-income countries.

7. The Children’s Rights Council is open to individuals between 12 and 18, but participants are typically between 15 and 18 years old.

8. The FJSFA is a space for children and young people to meet together to discuss public policies in a space where young people can express themselves freely. They hold meetings once a month during which they discuss their own agenda. They also collectively decide who will be appointed to participate in the Council and help guide/supervise them. The FJSFA comprises 4 young members (12–18); 2 councillors and 2 substitutes.

9. Here, ‘migrant children’ refers to children (aged 0–17 years) whose place of residence is different from the location (e.g. town/township or street committee) of their household registration (hukou) and who have been away from the location of their household registration for longer than six months. In 2015, China had 34.26 million migrant children (National Bureau of Statistics et al. 2017, 13).

10. While participants often refer to the term of ‘voice’, which has been much critiqued in the literature (e.g. Lundy 2007), we confirm that participants generally understood this term to reflect child rights-based understanding of child and young people’s participation that is more consistent with Lundy’s understanding to also include space, influence and audience (Department of Children and Youth Affairs 2015).

11. Ubuntu is a form of humanism. It comes from the Zulu phrase ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu: ‘I am because of who we all are’, which bears similarity to the phrase ‘we are all in this together’. Ubuntu encapsulates two sets of complementary values: the first focused on communality, group solidarity, co-responsibility, social justice, and sharing; and the second on respect, dignity, value, acceptance, and belonging.

12. Maturidade cidadã, meaning they start speaking as citizens that are quite aware of what they want to say and achieve.

13. Laura Wright joined the Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group at the University of Edinburgh as Research Fellow after completing her PhD.

Additional information

Funding

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#890-2015-0109, 2016) funded the project. UNICEF South Africa generously supported the work in South Africa and the participation of members of the CYAC in the international CYC-net conference in 2019 (#PCA2075-2017). The Brazilian research was in part sponsored by CAPES-PRINT/Ministry of Education Program for Institutional Internationalization, which was important for this work with ICCRP members [Edital no. 41/2017].

Notes on contributors

Lucy Jamieson

Lucy Jamieson is Senior Researcher at the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. She works with and for children to expose and address weaknesses in the child protection system, using primary research to change law, policy and practice. She also teaches child rights and advocacy in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Irene Rizzini

Irene Rizzini is Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (PUC-Rio) and Director of the International Center for Research and Policy on Childhood (CIESPI) at PUC-Rio. Professor Rizzini has published extensively on children, families and their communities in Brazil and has conducted research in collaboration with colleagues in several countries, particularly in Latin America.

Tara M. Collins

Tara M. Collins is Associate Professor in Child & Youth Care at Ryerson University, and Honorary Associate Professor at the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. Children’s rights have inspired her non-governmental, governmental, and academic work since 1996. She has a Ph.D. from the Univ. of London and professional experience with: universities in Canada, South Africa, and Ireland; Canadian federal government and Parliament; and an NGO.

Laura H.V. Wright

Laura Wright is Director of Participatory Methodologies, International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD). Laura’s research and practice has focused on play and arts-based participatory research methodologies, social justice, intergenerational partnerships, child rights, and psychosocial wellbeing internationally. She is passionate about meaningful collaboration and is active on several child and youth-centred networks and boards.¹³