Child Participation and Accountability in Save the Children Colombia’s Programming: A research collaboration between the Refugee Law Initiative and Save the Children

Participation of affected populations and participatory methodologies have emerged as a dominant trend in the humanitarian accountability discourse of a broad variety of aid organisations and their donors. This study explores how Save the Children Colombia can work to foster meaningful participation of children and adolescents in all stages of their programming, and how this can be operationalised for organisational learning, adaptation and programme accountability. The study was conducted in collaboration with Save the Children Colombia, and explores the challenges and opportunities in implementing child participation in the Colombian context. It sets out a number of recommendations addressing how Save the Children Colombia can enhance child participation and accountability. The study was conducted through desk-based research and field research in Colombia in collaboration with Save the Children staff and children and adolescents at Save the Children Colombia’s Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) in March 2019. The study was conducted as part of the RECAP project.