Impacts of municipal experiences of child and adolescent participation according to local technicians

Abstract

This article presents and analyses part of the results of the first phase of a research project. The main objective of this work is to analyse the perceived impacts by the technical of the participation experiences in the municipality at a double level: the beneficiaries (children and adolescents) and the community. To this end, a self-administered survey was carried out via the internet, with a sample of 191 technical figures from 179 municipalities across Spain, belonging to the networks Child Friendly Cities (CAI.Unicef) and/or the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC). A statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS V. 25 and, for the qualitative information derived from the open or semi-closed answers, a content analysis was developed. The main results achieved are at the level of children and adolescents, the experiences of child and adolescent participation (PIA, acronym in Spanish) in the municipality mainly have an impact on the development of knowledge (rights and duties), skills (participatory competence) and values (self-esteem, confidence) in children and adolescents. However, they have a weak impact on the consolidation of child and youth participation as a right, on the translation of this right into public policies and on governance, especially with the administration. At the community level, the impacts of the CAP can be grouped into three types: i) the promotion of opportunities for children’s participation in the community; ii) the improvement of the municipality; and iii) education for participation. The main constraints and challenges to be faced, intensified by the pandemic crisis, are to strengthen the image of children and adolescents with full rights of expression and decision making; and to ensure political will committed to the continuity and sustainability of CAP programmes.