Nothing About Us, Without Us

In 2022, Save the Children held a series of hearings with 58,035 children from 46 countries to understand children’s experiences of climate change and inequality, their ideas and recommendations for addressing the issues, and how organisations like Save the Children can better support their activism. Children are rarely consulted on policies and initiatives that impact them – a violation of their rights, and a frustration cited by many children who took part in the hearings. Save the Children’s new strategic focus on climate and inequality offers an opportunity to speak with children directly about what they would like to communicate to decision-makers, so we can shape our own campaigning and advocacy, amplify children’s views, and better support children’s campaigning and activism.

The hearings took place through a series of in-person and online consultations and surveys; the following report offers a summary of the findings. In-person and online focus group-style consultations will be referred to as “dialogues”, while overall results encompassing dialogues and online surveys will be referred to as the “hearings”. Further analysis of the results of the survey can also be found in a separate document included below.