Children's involvement in local budgeting

Publication:
Children and young people in action, participating in budget work
Editors: Margarida Maria Marques, Neiara de Morais Bezerra, Renato Roseno de Oliveira,Talita de Araujo Maciel. The Ceará Centre for Protection of Children and Adolescents – CEDECA-Ceará, Brazil, November 2005. ISBN: 0-620-35519-0.

This document describes the process of the involvement of a group of young people in the monitoring of the public budget of Fortaleza, in Brazil.

In 1999 CEDECA-CEARÁ initiated its programme of monitoring the Fortaleza city budget. This was done from the understanding that the struggle for the human rights of children and young people has to be conducted through the discussion of public policies that give effect to these rights, by knowing about the allocation of public resources to implement those policies and through social control in the allocation and spending of public resources.

Brazilian society has managed, through a process of broad social mobilisation, to have written into the 1988 Federal Constitution that children and young people have rights and that these need to be fully protected as a matter of absolute priority. Further, the Children and Adolescents Act (ECA) stipulates that meeting this priority envisages children having first call on public resources. Unfortunately, the democratic culture of the country does not fully recognise the rights of children and young people nor does it allow for the exercising of social control of public budgets.

Therefore, taking as a main objective the promotion of social control of policies and public budgets, the programme uses three complementary strategies: the empowerment of organised groups within civil society; the provision of technical subsidies for intervention in the drafting and implementation of budgetary legislation; and support during active mobilization and lobbying for the development of public policies for children and young people.

During the first three years, our principal partners were NGOs, forums and networks for the protection of the rights of children and young people. These were important partnerships, as the most significant networking among children’s rights organizations today includes a focus on budgetary issues in the city and in the State of Ceará. One example is the case of the DCA-Ceará Forum (a Forum of Non-governmental Organisations for the Protection of Children and Young People), which took the matter of budget allocations directly to the State, the Commission for the Protection of the Right to Education and the Forum Against Sexual Violence of Children and Adolescents.

Nevertheless, the perception that there were organised groups of young people in our city, discussing rights and public policies, but that they were absent from the decision-making processes on these same policies, led us to reconsider our project. Why had these groups not yet achieved the right to be heard? This question and the meeting with our partner, Save the Children Sweden, for whom direct participation is a fundamental principle of work focusing on rights, led us to the conviction that one cannot speak of democracy while excluding such a significant group within the population, even more so when the subject is precisely the policies targeting that very group. The story told here is that of the first experience of empowering and supporting groups of young people to intervene in the public budgeting process. In this narrative we describe the phases of that empowerment as well as the involvement of these young people in pressure groups for the development of budgetary legislation.

We are not dealing with a methodology created by or exclusive to CEDECA-Ceará, but rather formulated during the first year of the project with the active participation of the young people involved. The approach was adapted to daily events and the reality in which we found ourselves, taking into account the diversity of the young people, with the CEDECA team not only filling the role of educator, but also that of apprentice. Daily practices were revised and adjusted to respond to the problems and difficulties that we confronted during the project.

If certain doubts remained regarding the relevance of a project to align the public budget with the promotion of the right to participation, these doubts have been replaced by the certainty that participation is something quite necessary, not only for the young people, but also for the city.

For CEDECA-Ceará, promoting the exercise of the right to participate is about more than protecting that right; it is also a strategy to strengthen the protection of all the human rights of children and young people.

As posted on IDASA website. IDASA, in South Africa, has a children's budget unit, more about that later.

Hard copies can be ordered at:
Save the Children Sweden
Regional Office for Southern Africa
PO Box 13993
Hatfi eld, 0028
Tel: +27 (0)12 342 0222
Fax: +27 (0)12 342 0305
E-mail: postmaster@za.rb.se
Web: http://www.rb.se

Useful Link: Funky Dragon - children and young people's involvement in decision making in Wales

From their website:

Funky Dragon - the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales - is a peer-led organisation. Its aim is to give 0 – 25 year olds the opportunity to get their voices heard on issues that affect them. The opportunity to participate and be listened to is a fundamental right under the United Nations Convention Rights of the Child. Funky Dragon tries to represent as wide a range as possible and work with decision-makers to achieve change.

Funky Dragon’s main tasks are to make sure that the views of children and young people are heard, particularly by the Welsh Assembly Government, and to support participation in decision-making at national level.

Grand Council

The Grand Council is made up of a total of 100 young people from across Wales, representing the views of a wide range of both voluntary and statutory organisations. Young people across Wales can access the Grand Council through the different ways below.

Local Authority Wide Forums

Statutory Sector – 22 places
Voluntary Sector - 22 places
School Councils - 22 places

Funky Dragon is using the term local authority-wide forum as we recognise that some forums representing the geographical area of a local authority are either independent or are supported by an agency other than the Local Authority such as the Princes Trust or the Children’s Society.

Each Local Authority Wide Forum is offered two places for young people (one for the statutory sector and one for the voluntary sector) on the Grand Council. It is up to each forum to democratically elect their representatives. Representatives are asked to commit to a 2 year term with the Grand Council.

Each Local Authority Wide Forum will be responsible for carrying out its own election process. The only conditions Funky Dragon puts on the process are:

• The young people involved are aged between 11 and 25
• The election must be a fair and democratic process
• Only young people are able to vote
• One young person should represent the statutory sector e.g. youth clubs, schools, social services etc
• One young person should represent the voluntary sector e.g. local charities, uniformed group, young farmers etc

Funky Dragon reserves the right to refuse any representative if any of the above conditions are ignored.

Specific Interest Places

Young people have chosen 8 issue areas in which they feel need specific representation in the Grand Council:

• Gay & Lesbian
• Disability
• Young Carers
• Looked after Young People
• Black and Minority Ethnic
• Have been Homeless
• Have been in Juvenile Justice System
• Long Term Health Problems (but not necessarily a disability)

Where organisations or systems are in place for particular areas we will be approaching them to see how we can recruit young people that not only represent an organisation, but also that particular area. For example, with the area of looked after young people, we have approached Voices from Care and with black and ethnic minority young people, we have approached the Black Youth Network. Where more than one organisation wishes to put a young person forward, elections will take place at the Annual General Meeting.

Co-options

In effect these are empty places. The aim is to make sure that the Grand Council is as representative of children and young people in Wales as possible, whilst recognising the fact that 60 young people will never be truly representative of young people across Wales.

Once the Grand Council is in place these will be used to ensure as wide a range of representation as possible. Should the Grand Council feel that they are under represented in anyway then they can actively seek organisations to get young people representing an area/ interest.

Ambassadors

The ambassadors are members who have served their two year term on the grand council but who’s experience is considered to be vital. They are invited to stay on, as part of the Grand Council, so that they can pass on the working methods and history of the organisation to newer members.

The Election Process

Within the structure of Funky Dragon there are positions that require an election by the Grand Council. These are for positions on the grand council and the management committee.

For the Grand Council these are:

• Special Interest Places
• Co-option Places

For the management committee these are:

• Trustees under the age of 18
• Trustees aged 18 or over

If you are interested in joining the grand council you need to go through your local youth forum. Click on youth forums and you will find contact details for your local youth forum worker who will be able to help you.

Funky Dragon also developed standards for participation of children.