Tool for including Children

Guide for involving children in disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities

Are you working in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and would like to involve children in your work but lack the pertinent knowledge on how to do it? This guide is tailored for you. 

The four steps in this guide are based on the Lundy Model. Before you go through the steps, please visit the Lundy Model to ensure that you have a basic understanding of it. The Lundy model is a child participation model trying to make the demands of Article 12 of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child explicit. Article 12 describes that children have a right to participate in all matters affecting them. The Lundy model is based on the thought that for Article 12 to be successfully implemented, four distinct aspects must be considered: space, voice, audience, and influence. 

When it comes to child participation, it is so easy to think of it from a top-down perspective, especially when it comes to crisis and disaster: An adult wants to include children in a pre-defined topic in a way that they have already decided (for example, informing them in schools). We would like you to challenge this dogmatic idea. Try to consider ways children can co-create activities, and how children can decide on what and how they would prefer to be involved. Different activities allow for different degrees of co-creation. But remember: Meaningful participation entails letting children have a say in all stages.