Dialogues with Children, Mutual Learning Exercises and National Policy Debates

Putting children’s perspectives into planning and practice in the disaster context, embedding these more widely across European states and regions, was consequently the focus of CUIDAR. Our premise was the need to develop and embed participatory pathways to enable children from all backgrounds and abilities to articulate their experiences, contribute ideas and shape disaster risk policies, plans and procedures with relevant agencies and adults. The exclusion of children and young people’s perspectives from disaster management practice is particularly problematic given the increasing policy emphasis on building individual and community resilience for coping and responding to hazards and disasters. Building effective participatory models for young people’s involvement in disaster planning and policy also opens up opportunities for their involvement across age, gender, social and cultural background and inclusion of children with disabilities and/or learning difficulties (Larkins et al, 2014).

Grisi, Anna; Cordani, Flaminia; Ribeiro, Sofia; Kanari, Charikleia; Argyropoulos,Vassilios; Arenas, Míriam & Delicado, A. (2020). Dialogues with Children, Mutual Learning Exercises and National Policy Debates. In Delicado A., Mort M., & Rodríguez-Giralt I. (Eds.), Children and Young People’s Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction: Agency and Resilience (pp. 37-62). Bristol: Bristol University Press.