CUBA: Lessons Learnt in Child Participation

Summary: This case study is part of a compilation by Save the Children UK of lessons learnt in contributing to a national rights-based legal and policy framework for children. Similar reports for Bulgaria and Egypt will be made available on the CRIN website in the coming months.Save the Children UK’s programme in Central American and the Caribbean, created in 1974, has contributed to a national child rights framework, leading to dramatic changes for children and young people. The programme closed in March 2007, and its legacy continues through Save the Children’s partners through out the region.

This is a record of lessons learnt, challenges identified and recommendations made from Save the Children’s experiences over the last five years for all those involved in child rights and development work.

Child participation in Cuba

Through a child participation focus, the Cuba programme succeeded in engaging key government entities, while also developing sustainable youth leadership in risk management and disaster response at the grass roots. Advances were also made in the promotion of environmental education and violence prevention with socially disadvantaged youths.

Save the Children targeted social exclusion among disadvantaged youth through two projects: “Living Together Without Violence,” which dealt with domestic violence, and “Barrio Kids,” which carried out a variety of activities with disenfranchised youth in the Jesus María neighbourhood of Havana, Cuba.

Lessons learnt:

• All work – from needs-identification to project design – should be done together with local stakeholders.
• Engage child participation
• Working with government entities facilitated access to the target population thorugh schools and made the project sustainable.
• Domestic violence cannot be addressed in terms of victim and aggressor, but should be approached from the broader perspective of the family as a complex system of human interactions within a determined socio-historical context.
• Use the model of the ‘democratic family’ where everyhone has rights and obligations, where all opinions are important, and where there are no privileges accorded to age or gender. This model encourages children’s concerns and right to be listened to, ensuring children’s participation in their family environment.

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