Creating an enabling environment: capacity building in children’s participation, Save the Children Sweden, Viet Nam, 2000-2004

This document reports on the evaluation of an exploratory assessment in Viet Nam on the understanding of children’s participation among Save the Children’s staff, partners, and other agencies, as well as the level of children’s participation.

The programme operated a capacity-building programme for administrators, all levels of management and project officers at a number of project sites. The aim was to train adults to change their perception of children’s participation. Another objective of the programme was to create and support forums and exchanges between children and officials at all levels, on matters of concern to the children. The long-term aim was to raise awareness of children’s participation in social and cultural activities directly linked to their development, as well as of their potential for political participation.

Main findings include:

• despite widespread use of the term "children’s participation", there is no general consensus about what it means
• few people working in children’s participation really appear to believe in it; there is a tendency towards political correctness which was notable in the responses of some adult research participants
• rights in general, and children’s rights in particular, are poorly understood, including by people whose main employment focuses on children’s participation, many of whom have developed their own interpretations and understandings
• in Viet Nam, children’s participation is not well understood, although the idea (whatever it is) is well-accepted. The reasons for the lack of understanding are not based in "traditional attitudes", despite the way outsiders use this as an explanation
• "participation" is a moving target, which tends to be variously described rather than confidently defined
• no negative impacts are reported about the capacity building programme and in general the aims (albeit vague) have been achieved, but most information gathered refers to processes rather than to results and, with no baseline data, it is difficult to assess impact other than by recall
• positive impacts remarked upon seem to have been due to a large extent (especially in the region) to the personal efforts and energies of the Regional Advisor.

The report recommends that further skills were needed to involve children in programming. As part of a larger capacity-building process, training is recommended to enhance skills and knowledge of staff and partners of SCS in Viet Nam and the SEAP region.