Understanding and implementing child participation: Lessons from the Global South

Abstract

This article provides a theoretical framework to the Special Issue by examining the concept of child participation and the specific challenges for its application in the Global South. The Special Issue is a continuation of the editors’ book International Perspectives and Empirical Findings on Child Participation: From Social Exclusion to Child-inclusive Policies (Oxford University Press, 2015) that included studies mostly focused on participatory rights in the Global North. The individual articles that comprise the Special Issue complete this investigation by presenting empirical findings on child and youth participation in countries of the Global South, including Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, India, Mexico, South Africa, China and Brazil. The studies examine participatory rights in multiple contexts ranging from personal challenges such as familial status and migration, through local community changes, to global discourse relating to international children’s rights.