Child and Youth Participation in Programming for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: A Review of the Evidence

This review examines the recent literature for evaluations conducted on child and youth participation, particularly in programming for children affected by HIV/AIDS, and is the first of a three-phase study being commissioned by Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) for the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS’ (JLICA) Learning Group 2, which supports community and civil society responses. Through this research, JLICA aims to build evidence-based knowledge of how to effectively involve children and youth in community responses for children affected by HIV/AIDS from which to better inform the policies and practice of external organizations working in this arena.

The objective of this literature review is to identify existing frameworks for defining and evaluating child and youth involvement that may be applied in CCF research, as well as identify gaps in the evidence base.

Specific research questions the literature review will help to answer:

• What domains of impact have been defined in the scientific literature? Psychosocial, economic, social, etc.?
• What are the key gaps in evidence concerning child and youth participation in program design and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation, support of equitable gender involvement, and policy development/influence?
• What methodologies exist that can be used to monitor and measure the effect of participation over time?

By addressing these questions, this review was designed to orient subsequent phases of this study with CCF’s/Kenya program within the context of existing evidence.