Adolescents engage in local decision-making
03/10/2013 19:29
Adolescents engage in local decision-making
03/10/2013 19:29
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Twenty-eight adolescent leaders from all regions of the country – members of ‘Yosh Avlod Kengashi’, the national Youth Council, met Members of Legislative Chamber of the Parliament to share the outcomes of their participation in local community development and decision making.
The meeting was organized jointly by the Parliament’s Committee on the Issues of Science, Education, Culture and Sport, the Association for Support of Children and Families and UNICEF as part of the nationwide initiative to promote youth participation at the grassroots level.
The initiative was launched last year by the Association for Support of Children and Families in partnership with UNICEF. It aimed to increase the level of child participation in socially significant matters and to create opportunities for adolescents to engage meaningfully with their communities on matters that affect their lives.
“Adolescents have not only been able to engage with adults and decision-makers, but have also become more aware of and more willing to address matters that directly impact themselves, their peers and communities. The level of their civic engagement has increased,” says Inkilob Yusupova, Chairperson of the Association for Support of Children and Families.
This initiative engaged over 2,200 children and adolescents and helped bring them into direct dialogue with adults, especially decision-makers, establishing a valuable communication channel that can be strengthened in the future. 52 per cent of the participating adolescents were female, demonstrating a positive gender balance.
As presentations at the Parliament showed, Young Council members have developed a good understanding of child rights, especially of the rights to health, to live and develop in a family environment, and the rights of children with disabilities for inclusion. Through a participatory situation analysis, they identified key issues and bottlenecks with regard to those rights and developed innovative local solutions that were implemented jointly with Kamolot and other youth organizations.
For example, youth led initiatives helped improve sanitation and hygiene conditions in the schools of Kashkadarya and Khorezm regions and Karakalpakstan by increasing the number of wash stands and promoting hand washing. In all regions, Young Council members mobilized their peers to support children with disabilities and engage them in different extra-curricular activities.
“I‘ve realized that child participation in community life is important and contributes to our own growth, health and development. I’ve also learned that by working together with adults we can achieve a lot. I’ll continue promoting child rights among peers and adults,” says Gavkhar Islomova from Karshi city of Kashkadarya region.
Members of Parliament attending the roundtable meeting with the adolescent leaders from the regions welcomed their participation in local community decision making and assured that presented inputs and action plans will feed into the legislative work.
UNICEF will build on the results of this initiative and together with the Association for Support of Children and Families will continue working with children and adolescents to increase their civic engagement in matters that affect their lives.
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