Children and youth speak up – what do young people think of humanitarian action?
Terre des hommes Lausanne (2022)
In Burkina Faso, around 55% of people who need humanitarian assistance are children. They have a right to be heard. In 2022, we spoke with more than 200 boys and girls, to find out about their daily lives, the changes they would like to see for a better future, and how humanitarian efforts can be improved to meet their needs and support their aspirations.
“We can’t give our opinion because we are small. If we were adults, it would be better.”
We learned that children don’t often feel they have the right to share their opinion, and more work needs to be done to actively engage with them. We are now piloting a participatory methodology, in collaboration with Terre des Hommes, designed to support young people to express themselves freely and share their thoughts, feelings, experiences and ideas. Once tested, the methodology will be shared widely across the humanitarian response, helping aid actors to improve their work by better understanding children’s unique views.