Minister Zappone publishes the Mid-Term Review and Phase Two Action Plan of the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-making 2015 – 2020
Published: 3 October 2019
From: Department of Children and Youth Affairs
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone today published the Mid-Term Review and Phase Two Action Plan of the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-making 2015 – 2020.
Ireland has become a global leader in meeting its commitments under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child with the National Strategy for Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision making. This Strategy contains actions for all Government Departments and Agencies who provide, or oversee services, which have an impact on children and young people, to ensure that their voices are heard and influence decisions of relevance to their lives.
At the time of publication in 2015, an action plan was published to direct implementation of the Strategy over the first three-year period. Since 2015 three annual implementation reports have been compiled and published.
In 2019, DCYA undertook a review of implementation and worked across Government to develop a Phase Two implementation plan for the remaining period of the Strategy. The aim of this Mid-Term Review and Phase Two Action Plan is to update the Strategy to reflect the progress already made by Departments and Agencies and iterate the actions to reflect new initiatives and practices across sectors.
The Mid-Term Review and Phase Two Action Plan will also reflect the current context of support available to Departments and Agencies through Hub na nÓg, the centre of excellence for the participation of children and young people in decision-making and outline some examples of Government Agencies who have made strong progress in ensuring the voices of children and young people are central to decision-making processes in their organisations.
Minister Zappone said:”I am delighted to publish this review and Phase Two Action Plan of the Participation Strategy. Much progress has been made in how Government Departments and Agencies include children and young people’s voices in decision-making. We continue to be ambitious in our vision to become one of the best small countries in the world in which to grow up and central to that vision is ensuring children’s voices are heard in all the spaces and places where they live their lives.”
