CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING AT CHILD CARE INSTITUTIONS IN BAHIR DAR AND GONDAR TOWN OF AMAHARA REGION

Abstract

Practice of child participation in decision-making in the child institutions is not totally addressed in any research works in Ethiopia, though it is one of the pillar of the rights of children and also it is beyond an issue right as enshrined on Article 12 of United nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and Article 7 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), promoting and respecting children’s participation in decisions making process is not by itself an end results but it is a means to such ultimate results that is full-fledged development. It is therefore this study explores the practice of child participation in decision-making in four child care institutions found in North West Ethiopia.

Through probability sampling technique of lottery method is used to select four child care institutions out of seven child care institutions and from 300 children a total of 120 children are selected proportionally, whose age is from 13 to 18 years in a proportional manner in each child care institutions and 20 practitioners or social workers included in the study. Measures of both independent and dependent variables are gathered through self-administered questionnaire, unstructured interview and FGD whereby triangulation of data is applied. Both univariate (single variable) for frequency counts and bivariate (two variables) cross tabulations analysis because interested in patterns and relationships between one or two variables and also the chi-square test of significance was applied to determine the extent to which the findings could be generalized.