Involving children in global health policy and programming: practical guidance to get started

Children face new and growing threats to their health and well-being, including rising rates of non-communicable diseases and mental health disorders linked to the influence of commercial determinants of health and climate change, among other issues. Yet despite their right to participation established under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children are rarely invited to participate in global health processes meant to benefit them, whether by selecting priorities, designing policies and programming, advocating for their adoption or evaluating their implementation or impact. We call for greater involvement of children in global health initiatives, particularly those designed to benefit them, and lay out five principles to structure such engagement: (i) respect for children's right to participation, (ii) protection of children's safety and well-being as a foremost concern, (iii) age-appropriate interactions, (iv) reasonable inclusivity, and (v) transparency and accountability towards child participants. We provide practical recommendations for engaging with older children based on our experience with the Youth Advisory Board of the Children in All Policies 2030 initiative, which included 22 children aged 13-18 from 17 countries who provided input across all areas of our work. Finally, we show the benefits of engaging with children for organizations, the impact they seek to achieve, and child participants themselves.