Our children are not just our future, but they are our today. The decisions we make significantly influence their well-being, and it is crucial to include their voices and perspectives when designing interventions that are for them. Children’s day is celebrated across globe on the 20th of November of each year.
Every year there is a theme that advocates an area that is of core importance to children.
This year, the theme is focused on “Listen to the Future”, being an educationist and early childhood development enthusiast, to me this holds a great value, as starting from the earliest years, which are one of the most significant years of growth and development for young children which sets trajectory for their lifelong wellbeing and transgenerational health.
Shedding importance on ECD, a global ECD expert from the Harvard University, Dr Aisha Yousafzai shares, “Young children today face immeasurable challenges such as climate change, economic crisis, migration, threats from conflicts, increasing violence, pandemics all these things threat their health, their learning, and their development. It’s an imperative that we invest in children’s health and development as a priority not just for sake of individual children them self but also for the sake of nations development”.
This brings a fundamental emphasis on the role of families, communities, institutions and states to scale interventions and investments to support young children. Currently, the state of young children in Pakistan is alarming, every child who is born enters the world with substantial financial debt and climate crisis. Due to these problems, basic health, education and wellbeing services suffer.
While Pakistan grapples with these pressing issues, it is also essential to recognize the broader context of these challenges and the bandwidth it impacts young children. Hence, it becomes most essential to plan collaborative and multisectoral approaches to solve problems young children face and why it is essential to give children a voice. To this, Dr. Ali Faisal Saleem, Vice Chair Clinical Services from Peadiatrics and Child Health, Aga Khan University poses importance on “committing to realizing the dreams of every child, in every corner of the globe, recognizing that the struggle for peace and health is a shared responsibility that transcends borders. Together, we can build a brighter future”. By nurturing children’s growth in these formative years, we create a strong foundation that supports their transition through each subsequent stage of life.
To plan future for children of all ages, we must bring transformative approaches that reimagine and elevate the landscape working for them by listening to them. This calls for creating systems that not only hear children’s voices but also empower their holistic development, ensuring their health, education, safety, and potential and prioritize these as national agenda.
By building inclusive, multisectoral systems that integrate responsive caregiving, early childhood development, and nurturing environments, we set a foundation where every child can thrive, innovate, and lead a brighter tomorrow. To this, Dr Saba Shuja from UNICEF Pakistan emphasizes, “We need to ensure every child is heard, understood and included. Systems can only be strengthened when we engage children and include their voices in planning interventions and craft decisions”.
There are multifold benefits of engaging children’s voices in the systems planning, children have a unique world view and their perspectives of defining problems are through their own lens, including their voices can help policy makers and planners to get fresh and innovative perspectives.
There are many examples around the world where we have seen children lead and inspire solutions – demonstrating resilience, creativity and hope in adverse situations. Pakistan, as per the census report has approximately, more than 40% population under 18, which makes Pakistan rich in terms of human capital stream and investing in them could yield long term benefits to the country and can potentially have a positive impact of social, economical and climate growth and development.
Children have various ways through which they share their perspectives and ideas for growth. Families, schools and social institutions have a magnificent role in creating a safe zone and spaces where children can speak freely. This can be done using a variety of strategies, for very young children, listening to their voices mean, understanding and responding to their questions, facilitating them to view the world from their unique lens without jeopardizing gender and other biases, letting them explore the world using their senses, and engaging them in arts and culture.
With a little older child, engaging them in activities that enable them to create, like project-based learning, where children can be given tasks to find solutions to their basic community problems, developing a robotics project or as simple as designing a solar solution idea or doing a community mapping exercise. For children who are 14 and above, it’s different, they have thoughts and voices, institutions can invite them to become part of round tables and plan actions to strengthen communities.
Debates, dialogues, and discourse would be some of the productive ideas to engage them constructively. This age group can be engaged in planning policies, writing manifestos, or planning curriculum. Children need platforms, safe spaces, and a nonjudgemental approach for their voices to be heard.
Ms. Baela Raza Jamil, a globally recognized Pakistani Education Expert from Idara-e-Taleem o Agahi shares a voice quote on behalf of a child, “I want to grow in a space that is safe and makes me feel happy with my family and friends, Where I can go to parks to play look at trees, flowers and birds, Where I can be in a school with teachers who are kind and read stories to me where I can experience how to learn and play with my friends and feel strong with whom I can share my daily experiences”.
Play is essential for young children
Parents and educators in this whole process has an amplifying role. But it takes more than individuals, communities and systems must prioritize children. On this World Children’s Day, let us all take a pledge to invest in children, listen to their voices, create safe zones for them, and collaborate to ensure every child that is born gets their right to thrive.
