World Vision International 2022 Global Report on Child Participation in Decision-Making: Celebrating Children’s Involvement in World Vision Decision-Making Processes

This report is a culmination of over a decade of serious engagement with children across our field and support offices. Over the past few years, child representatives have consistently demonstrated the value added by including boys and girls in organisational decision-making spaces from the local community level to national and international spaces. In 2019, World Vision Steering and Working Groups were commissioned to form the Operational Requirements for Child Participation in World Vision Decision-Making, which was then affirmed by our Executive Leadership Team. This first report is therefore a celebration of World Vision’s commitment to the girls and boys by listening to their perspectives when making key decisions that affect them.

This report is also the beginning of a new chapter in World Vision where child participation in World Vision decision-making has been officially institutionalised and embedded into the organisation, with consistent reporting and clear lines of accountability. The Operational Requirements were structured to allow FOs to be creative in how they implement these requirements and what they report in their annual child participation reports, focusing on what is meaningful to them and how children have shaped the large and small decisions of the office. We have been so inspired by how creatively and thoughtfully so many FOs have taken ownership of this process – opening up wonderful and influential spaces for intergenerational dialogue and relationships.

Though our efforts to strengthen child participation at World Vision include children’s engagement in and through programming, advocacy, and organisational decision-making spaces, this report focuses on the organisational decision-making aspect. The report follows a similar structure to that of the 55 individual FO child participation reports, summarising the trends and highlights from those reports, covering data from 2021-2022. It draws from what children have shared in processes such as the Annual Community Review and Planning (ACRP) meetings done in each area programme (AP), meetings between children and FO Senior Leadership Teams (SLTs), and Annual Strategy Review meetings.

This report is a significant step in our commitment to children’s rights and is an organisational reflection of the inherent, God-given dignity present in all girls and boys. It is abundantly clear that children deeply desire to have a place at the table – but that participation is not simply their end goal. Rather, they consider their participation through an altruistic lens, seeing it as a way to make their communities better for their families and peers, to serve the most vulnerable among them, and to create a better world. Their motivations are pure, kind and Christ-like.
May you be inspired by the voices of children.