Child-Participatory Budgeting: A review of global practice

Both the United Nations Human Rights Council, the European Commission, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child have put strong emphasis on child rights budgeting, recommending that States’ parties develop child budgets as a key aspect of implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Committee on the Rights of the child has provided specific guidance on children’s participation in budgeting, a core part of general comment 19 on public budgeting and children’s rights. In answer to the Committee’s call for examples of good practice of child participation in child rights budgeting, Plan International has developed this study, which is aimed at collating examples of good practice on children’s participation in budgeting.

The research presented in this studies was collected from the views of nearly 2,700 children in 71 countries. The results highlight strong support for government engaging with children when making decisions about expenditure.