knowledge bank

Gazientep/Turkey X-border operation – Turkey hub 20.07.2020: children in IDP sites – design and protection.

Site planning workshop.

Designed and run an online workshop for the global shelter cluster, IOM – the United Nations migration agency and the Swiss agency for development and cooperation.

Guidelines for camp planning with children aged 0-18 years.

This handout was developed to accompany the children and IDP sites workshop.

Listed contributor to this resource.

This guide is part of a series that aims to provide access for expertise in the field of disaster risk reduction.

This toolkit aims to stimulate an increase in quality, inclusiveness, and sustainability in water and sanitation infrastructure projects in urban informal contexts. Such projects need to be more participatory, codesigned with participants with diverse knowledge and lived experience. They also need to be more inclusive, following the principles of ‘leave no one behind’ and ‘do no harm’. These things are hard to do, hence a toolkit to help. The toolkit is a starting point for practitioners as they plan and implement a participatory approach in designing water and sanitation infrastructure projects. It is positioned at the intersection of participatory design, gender and social inclusion, water and sanitation.

Spasojevic, Dasha; Batagol, Becky; Prescott, Michaela; Nasir, Sudirman; Mansfield, Robyn; Rahlina, Ina; et al. (2022). Reflecting on Water and Sanitation infrastructure: A toolkit for WASH practitioners on gender and socially inclusive participatory design approaches in urban informal settlements. Monash University.

Children are disproportionately affected by disasters. Poor infrastructure and urban development increase vulnerability to disasters and whilst the impact on children is becoming increasingly understood, children are generally treated as passive victims in the aftermath leading to long-term devastating effects on the resilience of communities. Whilst research into the impact of disasters and a changed physical environment on children is gaining momentum, there is still a lack of understanding of how to and why engage with children in decisions regarding the design of their physical environment.

This chapter presents two case studies and examines barriers, cultural biases and protective measures that prevent children’s voices from being heard, the longer-term impact of children’s exclusion from ongoing governance and maintenance of public infrastructure, and challenges people’s pre-conceived ideas of the role of children in our communities.

Designers, decision-makers and governance operators have the opportunity to develop innovative and long-term sustainable approaches to designing and operating resilient infrastructure. So how do we ensure that participation of children is meaningful? How do we address the barriers that prevent us from working with children?

YOURS - Youth for Road Safety is a direct follow-up of the United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety in 2007. More than 400 young people from over a 100 countries gathered to discuss the global road safety crisis and how young people can be part of the solution.

The participatory guidelines have been developed to mainstream meaningful youth participation as a systemic mechanism to support the design and delivery of road safety policies, interventions and national plans/programs. These mechanisms could be realised by membership of advisory bodies, youth councils, technical committees or evaluation panels for calls for proposals, or through funding to invest in youth led project and programs

Through the policymakers' guidelines, we aim to foster an intergenerational co-leadership mechanism with youth and policymakers to address the implementation of the Global Plan on road safety and realise the aspirations of the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety.

A collaborative publication focussing on issues of disaster, design and development. The Design Between provides insights into complex problems of disaster and resilience through a series of diverse articles. With increasing occurrences of natural hazard events and humanitarian crises throughout the world, interdisciplinary design thinking is essential for future-proofing our communities from further impacts and potential damage. The Design Between embodies this thinking. It represents the process, the bridge, the tools to support movement across an otherwise impassable space.

Co Founder + Partnerships

Abstract Children’s participation in urban planning impacts communities. A policy environment supports their participation, yet this is far from mainstream, particularly in areas of greatest vulnerability. This literature review demonstrates what we do and don’t know about barriers and enablers to children’s participation in urban planning. We identify key themes within participatory methods, processes, and structures that influence urban planning stages and methods and identify the consequences of children’s inclusion or exclusion. We then argue for a research agenda that examines institutional impacts on urban planning and decisions that include or exclude children to contribute to a transformation of on-ground practices.