A Response to Adam Fletcher's Post on "Real Participation"- Humanitarianism and the Role of Young People in Conflict

I would like to take a moment to respond to Adam Fletcher's blog post entitled "Real Participation"

I wrote my master's dissertation on "Humanitarianism and the Role of Young People in Conflict: Challenges to the Current Normative Framework of Children's Participation." The central thesis argues that many humanitarian organizations do not recognize how young people in the global south participate in the context of structural, armed, and political conflict and that this non-recognition is rooted in organizations’ conceptual framework for understanding childhood. Organizations operate based on a set of assumptions that interpret childhood as a time to develop towards adulthood, a stage separate from the adult realm, and a period associated with certain behavioral characteristics. Although organization-sponsored participation emerged within the context of a rights based approach and the ‘localization’ of development, which suggest sensitivity to local contexts and to the agency of young people, actual participation has largely been limited by these conceptual assumptions about childhood. Young people’s participation that challenges these assumptions is not recognized or even delegitimized by organizations. I think this arguement can apply to most organizations that work on inclusion of children in programming through participatory activities.

I do not think that Adam Fletcher and I disagree, but what I am concerned about is that the paradigm in which children's participation occurs is one that is based on certain assumptions about childhood, whereas children are often forced due to structural problems to participate in a way that is not acceptable to society. For example, many young people who are exposed urban or gang life have had many life experiences that are beyond childhood, they have had adult experiences, and these experiences cannot be discredited when working with them to achieve a sense of liberty. I came to understand this fully when working with high school students at Ballou High School in D.C. Many could not focus on education because they had to support their families by working. Thus, when we worked with them on civic engagement projects, they wanted to be treated as adults who came up with adult solutions. For example, they wanted to change the school cell phone policy because many needed their cell phone in case of an emergency at home (which were frequent) or for work after school. However, the administration did not understand this because they did not see the students as having adult experiences, but rather as child becomings. (Ultimately, a deal was brokered)

For this reason, rather than a consultative process, or training programs that are based on who the child will become rather than who the child already is, participation should include direct action and voice so that young people can use their life experiences as a point of departure for change. And that is why real participation means recognition of how people already participate and using that to enhance their own personal liberty. It is a necessary first step for participation to ensure that we recognize young people for who they are not what they will become.