From injustice to justice: participation of marginalised children in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

How well the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved will greatly influence the lives of today's children and decisively shape the rest of the twenty-first century. Yet, children were largely excluded from opportunities to influence the selection of SDGs and their associated targets a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of global ethics Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 382 - 403
Main Authors Walker, Bill, Cuevas-Parra, Patricio, Phiri Mpepo, Besinati
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.09.2019
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Accountability
child participation
child rights
Children
justice
social accountability
Social justice
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development Goals
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Summary:How well the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved will greatly influence the lives of today's children and decisively shape the rest of the twenty-first century. Yet, children were largely excluded from opportunities to influence the selection of SDGs and their associated targets and indicators, and major barriers to meaningful child engagement remain. However, child-focused agencies have found that when children are intentionally enabled to participate in seeking accountability, they can influence their families, communities and governments to value their contributions and increase their well-being. In furthering its strategy of building brighter futures for children, World Vision implements Citizen Voice and Action (CV&A), a strategic social accountability approach, into communities where children are severely impoverished. Drawing on empirical evidence from children's CV&A experiences, this paper enquires into the circumstances under which children are empowered to seek accountability for SDGs. This article identifies shared processes which they and others use to strengthen children's participation in seeking social justice through social accountability. This paper argues that children possess under-recognised research capabilities to think and reflect systemically, critique, understand, and pursue socially just and equitable outcomes conducive to the SDGs, which under the right circumstances, can influence practices, policies, laws and systems.
ISSN:1744-9626
1744-9634
DOI:10.1080/17449626.2019.1690552