Children’s voices at the centre

World Vision, along with the leading members of child parliament contributed to a roundtable discussion conveyed in May to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on education. Some policies and programs often are ineffectual. People who are most impacted by this system of inequality and injustice are often left out from the consulting decisions affecting their lives. Especially for girls, social injustice leads to trampling of rights. Devastating impacts of COVID-19 across the world increase the risk for young girls to experience gender-based violence during the pandemic, including unwanted pregnancy and child marriage.

Initiatives which empower children, like child parliaments, become an important and positive path to participation in broader community decision-making. When stakeholders adopt a participatory approach, child participation sifts the narrative - children become empowered, and can actively help improve program and policies.

The G7 summit in Quebec and the Government of Canada assembled a global commitment to help educate the girls in crisis by creating new grants to assist people. One such grant is the Equality for Girls Access to Learning (EGAL) grant. Still at its early stages, World Vision sets out to create leadership clubs that review community action plans, learn about civil participation and access platforms to disseminate life changing information.