Conference Program

In recent years, democratic education has increasingly questioned symbolic or consultative forms of youth participation that fail to influence decision-making processes (Hart, 1992; Lundy, 2007). International frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - CRC (1989) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development (2023) call for participatory models that connect rights, institutional accountability, and transformative learning. From this perspective, child participation is not reduced to “giving a voice” but understood as ensuring that young people can influence decisions impacting their lives (CRC, Art. 12).

This paper presents the CINI Method (CINI, 2021) as a child-led participatory framework designed to foster democratic competencies through structured collective action. Grounded in Children’s Rights- and Human Rights-Based approaches, the CINI Method positions children not merely as beneficiaries but primarily as rights-holders and legitimate co-decision makers in local governance. It is organised around four interconnected axes—active participation, accountability of duty-bearers, multisectoral convergence, and prevention—implemented through subsequent cycles of sensitisation, institutionalisation, collective analysis, shared prioritisation, planning, implementation of the plan of action for children, and participatory monitoring. Rather than episodic engagement, participation becomes institutionalised within local governance mechanisms, fostering sustainability and mutual accountability between communities and institutions (FXB Center, 2020).

The discussion draws on the “Community-led Climate Action” project, implemented in 2025 in a rural area of West Bengal (India) exposed to high climate risks. The initiative engaged approximately 30 villages in integrating children’s perspectives into environmental planning. Through the training of peer-leaders (120 children), the use of Social Resource Mapping for identifying local vulnerabilities and resources, and structured collective deliberation processes, children actively contributed to identifying priorities and implementing environmental micro-actions (i.e. waste management, green corridors) embedded in local governance processes. The initiative explicitly addressed environmental justice concerns by linking children’s lived experiences to broader structural vulnerabilities.

Findings indicate that, when participation is connected to real decision-making arenas, it operates as a democratic learning process across multiple levels. Children develop competencies related to deliberative dialogue, collective problem-solving, shared responsibility, and awareness of institutional accountability. At the community level, collaborative practices and collective ownership of environmental challenges were strengthened, helping reduce problems, also from an often-neglected child perspective. At the institutional level, structured interaction between young citizens and local authorities created conditions for preventive governance, with potential medium- and long-term effects.

Overall, the case study suggests that democratic competencies are most effectively cultivated when participation is cyclical, linked to concrete accountability mechanisms, and embedded in rights-based governance structures. For Western education systems, this entails rethinking service learning and participatory pedagogies not as peripheral initiatives, but as structural components of democratic schooling capable of moving beyond symbolic participation toward shared decision-making power and socially just forms of citizenship (Biesta, 2011).