Child Action for Effective and Inclusive Local Policies

forthcoming

ChildACT+ is a cross-country initiative aiming to close the participation gap between children and local governments by embedding inclusive, systemic, and rights-based mechanisms for child engagement in public decision-making across five EU Member States: Romania, Italy, Spain, Latvia, and Estonia. The project brings together seven expert organisations with complementary expertise in child rights, civic education, local governance, and participatory democracy. Despite EU-level commitments to children’s participation, recent data and field research show that young people — especially those under 18 — remain structurally excluded from shaping the policies that affect them. Participation levels are lowest in rural areas, among children from minority or migrant backgrounds, those with disabilities, and girls. ChildACT+ responds to this challenge by combining targeted capacity-building with local governance reform, aiming to empower both children and local governments to co-design effective and inclusive local policies. Objectives include: developing a replicable participation framework, training 360+ children in 40 communities, piloting 20 child-led initiatives, engaging 50+ officials in 25+ municipalities, promoting inclusion, and launching five national action plans. ChildACT+ promotes a whole-system approach: from documenting needs, to training both sides of the participation equation (children and LGs), to real-life experimentation and adoption of sustainable models. The project introduces mandatory feedback mechanisms, a Gender & Diversity Dashboard, and tools aligned with the EU Children’s Participation Platform and the Defence of Democracy Package. At its core, ChildACT+ advances democratic innovation by treating children not as beneficiaries, but as co-creators of inclusive communities. With its robust methodology, national anchoring, and transnational cooperation, the project aspires to make child participation in public life the norm across the EU.