Child & Survivor Participation

At ECPAT, we believe real change happens with children, not for them. When children and survivors influence the systems meant to protect them, those systems are more likely to work. They’re grounded in reality and responsive to children’s needs. 

Yet too often, children’s voices are dismissed by adults because of harmful adult attitudes, stigma, and power imbalances. This is especially true for issues like sexual exploitation, where children, especially survivors and those most marginalised, are often prevented from influencing the very systems designed to protect them. 

When children aren’t meaningfully involved in decisions that affect them, we not only miss critical insights about the risks they face and what could better protect them, but we also deny them their right to be heard, silencing them and reinforcing the same power imbalances that allow sexual exploitation to happen in the first place. 

Our Approach 

We work with civil society, governments, and the private sector to make child participation a standard part of their work and practices. This means moving beyond one-off consultations to co-create ongoing and meaningful ways of engaging with children and young survivors as equal partners in making decisions that affect them.  

By embedding systematic engagement with children in the development of laws and policies that impact them, in governance structures, business practices, and organisational culture, we aim to shift power dynamics over the long term, ensuring that children’s voices are not an exception, but a permanent, protected and respected part of how decisions are made. 

Working with Children and Young People 

We develop ways of working that are created together with children, ensuring their experiences shape how decisions are made, giving children the tools, space, and influence to contribute their expertise—all while maintaining strong ethical safeguards. 

Supporting Adults and Institutions 

Adults and institutions may unintentionally limit child participation due to ingrained beliefs that children are “too young,” “too vulnerable,” or “not ready” to contribute to complex decisions or discuss sensitive issues like sexual exploitation. In some cases, adults see themselves as the primary decision-makers, assuming they know what is best. Rigid institutional cultures can also reduce child participation to tokenistic gestures rather than meaningful engagement. 

Our work aims to help adults rethink these ingrained biases. Through tools like the GREATER Model, we provide step-by-step guidance to move towards structured, ethical, and sustained participation models. Our goal is to help organisations move from seeing participation as an obligation to recognising it as a driver of stronger and better decisions and long-term systems change. 

Centring Survivors’ Perspectives 

Young survivors understand better than anyone how child protection systems succeed or fail to protect them. We create safe spaces where they can share what works and what needs to change, on their own terms. By centring their lived experiences, we help build child protection responses that are grounded in reality, evidence-driven, and capable of delivering meaningful change. 

Child and Youth Participation in Action 

• In Nepal and Bangladesh, child leaders in the Children Know Better project became researchers and advocates, identifying urgent issues around child protection and sexual violence in their communities and bringing these directly to local decision-makers. 
• In East and West Africa, girls and young women in the She Leads programme influenced conversations on child protection and digital safety at global and regional levels. 
• Across the European Union, thousands of children and caregivers came together for the VOICE Project to share what digital safety means to them, directly influencing policy debates and legislation.