Consultation
Environmental
Education Resource
Pack for
Child-friendly
Schools
1 August, 2007
Yaounde, Cameroon
Donna L. Goodman
Project Manager
Environment and Young People
Outline
• Environment and the MDGs?
• Children and environment – what is the relationship?
• What are child-friendly school and community
environments?
• Physical/facilities based challenges and solutions
• Participatory methodologies and curriculum
• Children’s degree of control over decisions: dimensions,
standards, indicators (plotting examples)
• Impact, sustainability and institutionalisation of children’s
participation
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Millennium Development Goals
MDG 7: Ensure Environmental
Sustainability
Target 9: To integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and programs and
reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Target 10: To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people
without sustainable access to safe drinking water and
basic sanitation
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Linkages with
other MDGs
1. Poverty
and Hunger
2. Universal
primary
education
MDG 7
Targets 9 & 10
3. Gender
equality
4. Reduced
child
mortality
8. Global Partnerships
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6.Combating
disease:
(HIV, malaria...)
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Environmental challenges
to children
 Unsafe water
 Poor hygiene and sanitation
 Air pollution – indoor and outdoor
 Disease vectors
 Chemical hazards
 Injuries and accidents
 EMERGING ISSUES – such as :
Climate/global change
and its various
consequences
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CLIMATE –
GLOBAL CHANGE
Ambient
Air pollution
Chemical
hazards
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Indoor Air
pollution
Injuries and
accidents
Unsafe
water
Disease
vectors
Poor hygiene
and sanitation
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COMPLEX, INTERRELATED
PROBLEMS,
REQUIRING INNOVATIVE
APPROACHES
AND
JOINTLY COORDINATED
INTERVENTIONS
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Environmental Education Resource Pack
for Child-friendly Schools
Child-centred solutions
• School environment: gender, current situation (ie:
drought, flood, access to water? toilets?)
• Technical solutions: rainwater harvesting; solar or wind
generated electricity and water pumps; toilets; school
gardens; trees; waste disposal; watershed cleanups
• Lesson plans: what do these solutions have to do with my
life? (lifeskills based, cooperative learning)
• Methodologies, guidelines: participatory tools, training for
teachers, youth leaders, peer-to-peer
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Voices of Youth…
“We, as children and young people pledge
to be involved in designing, implementing
and evaluating child managed water and
sanitation projects and other initiatives.”
(Children’s Water Manifesto, Kyoto Japan March 2003)
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Why should children participate in WES?
Convention on the
Rights of the Child
“To ensure that all segments of
society, in particular parents and
children, are informed, have
access to education and are
supported in the use of basic
knowledge of child health and
nutrition, the advantages of
breastfeeding, hygiene,
environmental sanitation and the
prevention of accidents.”
Article 24, 2 (e)
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Participatory exercise
• What can individual children do to help create
better environments at home, school or in the
community?
• What can two or three children do?
• What can a group of children do?
• What can adults do to support you?
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How can children contribute?
Many ways are possible; very few involve the stereotype of Children
Delivering Messages. In the simplest analysis we can think of …
One child
Pass(es) knowledge to
younger child/children
at home or in school
Two or three
Children
Teach skills to
same age child/children
at home or in school
A group of children
Demonstrates by
example to
their family/families
Works
together with
the community
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What are some of the most common ways in which
‘Children for Environment’ approaches play out: ?
•
Children in families
•
Children as information gatherers
•
Children in groups as a force with
school and community.
•
Children as spreaders of mass
information
The latest methodology often combines these.
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Intergovernmental/
Global
Convention on the
Rights of the Child
Kyoto Protocol
nt
me
n
r
ve ies
Go olic
P
Family
sse
de o
f
for L Water
ife
Deca
Rainwater harvesting
Me
Climate
Change
nge
ro
f be
Community
School
Deforestation
hav
ior
cha
nge
National
Tree planting
HIV/AIDS,
Malaria,
Cholera
D
Su eca
st de
ai
na of
bl Ed
M
e
i
De uca
n
Ed is
ve tio
t
uc ry
lo n f
pm or
at of
io
en
n
t
Clean-up of
Provision of
stagnant water
bednets
Sexual reproductive
health educ.
Participatory tools Biodiversity
Ecosystems
Community
clean-ups
Pr
iv
at
e
Se
c
Gender-sensitive lifeskills
Hygiene
education
&
Sanitation
to
r
Uni
te d
Legend:
Nat
Lack of
energy
Ecological
Sanitation
Indoor
Outdoor
Air Pollution
ion
s
Inte
rn a
of S tional Y
anit
atio ear
n
•Triangle: Threats
•Software/participatory solutions: Green
•Hardware/environmental solutions: Blue
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Gender
&
Exclusion
School gardens
Green schools
construction Poor
Renewable energy
solutions
t
an
v
le s
re trie
r
e is
th
O Min
Ministry of
Environment
Montreal Protocol
BO
s
Lack of
Access
to Water
NG
Os,
C
Endangered
Watersheds
Activities
Professional
development
OUTCOMES
• Environmentallyaware and
empowered
children
• Children,
families and
communities
prepared for
environmental
emergencies
• Healthy/sanitary
environments
support improved
learning
capabilities
• Gender equality
• ‘Green’ schools
• Reduced
vulnerability to
climate change
related risks
• Restored
watershed areas
• Reforested,
stabilized
environments
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Young people
have information
for survival
Young people’s
control over
decisions
Young people’s
participation in
WES
Better services
by consulting
young people
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Young people’s
contributions
Building
capacities of
young people
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Children’s access to environment-related
information
• Children who have access to information about water,
environment and sanitation are better able to survive and
to protect themselves.
• Information is essential for children to realise their right to
survival. Where children are denied access to information
about health matters, their survival is put at risk.
• It is the responsibility of governments, teachers and the
education system, parents, community and religious
leaders, the media and the private sector to ensure that
children and young people have access to this vital
information.
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Develop children’s capacities
• Children who are able to express themselves and are
being listened to at home and in school learn and
develop better. They develop an interest in their own
health and will take better care of themselves and others
• If adults listen to children, give them time to articulate
their concerns, provide them with appropriate information,
children will acquire the confidence and ability to
contribute to their own environment. It encourages
children to take more responsibility.
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Consulting children
• Research and assessment results are better if they are
based on information from children and adolescents
• Consulting children leads to better understanding of
children’s own environmental and health-related needs
and concerns
• Water, environment and sanitation services are better if
children and young people have control over their design,
operation and maintenance
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Dimensions, standards and indicators
Impact of child and youth participation and degree
of children’s control over decisions
Sustainability and institutionalization of
children’s participation
Quality of children’s participation
Costs of children’s participation
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Child and adolescent participation
Governance
Child-led
organizations
Service
Contributions
Responsibility
Children’s
citizenship
Children’s
participation rights
Decision
making
Child and adolescent
development
Expression,
opinions
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Children’s skills
& capacities
Information
for and by
children
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Thank
you
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