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and any consultations or assessments need to be disaggregated, separating children’s view
from adults and looking at different ages, gender and other groups. This disaggregation
of children’s groupings needs to be done both in practice and in reporting – it is futile to
disaggregate the process, with separate consultations for adults and children and by age
and gender and other groups across children and young people, if these are reported
without analysis of differences as well as similarities, and also underlying meanings and
complexities. In the process of analyzing children’s views, ensure that the shorthand
categories of `education’, `protection’, `health’ and so on that are widespread among
government and non-government agencies are not being used to subsume children’s
needs and so not meeting them because of interconnections and complexities in cause
and effect. Increased involvement of children in preparedness activities can lead to the
identification of particular local hazards and problems and inter-linkages, so that the effects
of an emergency are better understood.
Engagement with children at different stages of an emergency, including early assessment,
monitoring and evaluation, is essential. Agencies need to be prepared and competent,
allocating appropriate human and financial resources.
Engagement and consultations should be:
• Disaggregated in process (adults and children should be separate, there should be
diversity in children’s groupings – age, gender, disability, other social and economic
status etc.);
• Disaggregated in reporting;
• Include assessment of needs and wants, what children are doing, can do and would
like to do, suggestions for improvements;
• Repeated on a regular basis, with previous actions and consultation findings followed
up, especially needs, rights, gaps and improvements
• Making use of recent practice innovations so that engagement and consultations are
coordinated across agencies and the work is shared.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order for the World Humanitarian Summit to achieve transformative change, a key
outcome must be to ensure that the success of humanitarian action is measured by
significant improvements in the situation of the most vulnerable children in countries
which are highly susceptible to natural hazards, fragility and conflict.
Through the World Humanitarian Summit, the fate and future of millions of children
worldwide can be positively influenced by governments, civil society, donors, UN agencies
and implementing partners.