PERU member Dr Jessica Ozan will be contributing to a YouthPower Learning Webinar this Thursday 4th March.


PERU member Dr Jessica Ozan will be contributing to a YouthPower Learning Webinar this Thursday 4th March. Together with experts Dr Mónica Ruiz-Casares (McGill University, Canada) and Nick Petten (Petten Consulting, Canada), Jessica will explore issues associated with ethics and participation in the context of evaluations involving children.

In order to speak truth to power, children and adolescents have to overcome multiple obstacles. Despite several conventions supporting their right to participate in decisions that concern them (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Treaty of Lisbon), their involvement often remains limited. Children and adolescents’ meaningful engagement in research and evaluation is indeed challenging. It requires time and resources to adapt evaluation tools and materials. It also involves specific ethical issues, such as informed parental and child consent. This panel brings ethics at the forefront of their discussion on children’s participation.  It will consider how several gatekeepers (parents, schools, local authorities) can facilitate or interfere with their right to participate. The panel with offer a cross-national perspective with examples from Canada, Europe, and Low and Middle Income Countries. The discussion will focus on ways to ensure meaningful participation, such as visual methods and robust consent processes. Considering parental and other stakeholders’ consent, Jessica’s presentation will provide an overview of differences in regulations across Europe. It will focus on how securing child informed consent is becoming an integral part of best practice.

To learn more about the event and register, please follow this link.