UNESCO Chair Global Health and Education Health Education, Prevention, Health Promotion, Children and Young People
 

Call for participation: Genuine participation of children and young people

Extended deadline: 30 June 2022.

French versions: Call for Participation (FR) and Case Study Template (FR).

Arabic versions: Call for Participation (Arabic) and Case Study Template (Arabic).

You are invited to participate in our project to collect case studies of successful projects and initiatives on how to involve children and young people in improving their health and wellbeing. Below we describe why the collection of case studies is being done and why we invite you to participate. 

Why is this project being done?

Tomorrow’s world needs to be created together with children and young people. Their genuine participation is crucial: ‘nothing about them without them’. We know that many activities, projects and research initiatives on active participation of children and young people concerning their health and well-being have taken place and are being developed all over the world. The UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education has taken the initiative to identify and map the evidence of the effectiveness of genuine participation of children and young people in health and well-being.

The collection and analysis of case studies is part of a global initiative on genuine participation of children and young people in health promotion. The identified case studies will help us to improve, test and implement models and approaches for children’s and young people’s genuine participation in the future.

What do we plan to do?

The UNESCO Chair will collect case studies on successful efforts of involving children and young people in education and health issues. We will describe and analyse how the projects were set up, identify the barriers and facilitators to the development of such approaches and describe the conditions for success of these initiatives. The UNESCO Chair is collecting experiences of individuals and communities from a wide variety of social and cultural contexts. These can be case studies, projects or activities in which children and young people are actively participating.

The collected case studies will be clearly described to ensure that we can learn from them – both in terms of success, effectiveness, potentials and challenges.

Who is invited to contribute?

Everyone who is involved in or has experience with initiatives and projects that actively involve children and young people in promoting their health and well-being is invited to contribute.

How do we see participation of children and young people?

Genuine participation of children and young people in improving their lives is a human right. They need to be involved as active citizens in any relevant issues related to their lives, either now or in the near future. Also, genuine participation is the most effective way to promote children’s and young people’s health. Their participation leads to ownership which we see as a pre-condition for sustainable change of their own lives, behaviour and thinking. Participation in health promotion gives them the power to act on their own health and on their environment.

Here are some criteria characterizing what we mean by participation:

  • Children and young people cover the ages between 4 to 24 years old (including children, adolescents and young adults)
  • Education and health contexts include a variety of formal and informal settings (schools, sport clubs, hospitals, community prevention centres, scouting organisations etc.)
  • Children and young people, as well as professionals, are involved in co-creation processes to ensure that models and approaches developed will be tailor-made to the cultural and social setting involved.

What will happen if you take part?

Please send your completed template (preferably in English, French or Arabic) to the UNESCO Chair secretariat by 30 June 2022. You will receive feedback on your case study before September 2022.

Selected case studies will be included in the publication, edited by Professor Didier Jourdan, chair holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, and colleagues. The publication will include the analysis of the case studies and a framework describing genuine participation of children and young people.

This publication is intended to be the starting point for a global collaboration in research as well as dissemination of models and approaches for children’s and young people’s genuine participation.

What are the possible benefits if you contribute?

By completing the template with your experiences, you will contribute by sharing your knowledge and experiences with genuine participation of children and young people in health promotion. Through this publication and the chapter you will contribute, your work will be shared with a global audience. You will also be able to identify new contacts by being part of the UNESCO Chair global community.

Contact for further information

Silvia de Ruiter (silvia.deruiter@unescochair-ghe.org) is leading the project, Didier Jourdan is responsible for the scientific component and Lara Debes (lara.debes@etu.uca.fr) is in charge of the collection of the case studies.

Download the Call for Participation

Download the Template