Growing up on the Streets: building networks of knowledge exchange for delivering impact

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Street children are perhaps one of the most visible signs of poverty and marginalization in urban environments, yet their rights are often not realized. Furthermore, street children lack formal representation placing them outside the arena of policy development. Not only do they face multi-faceted problems but as a group they are difficult to define. This is both in terms of their relationship to the street and their status as both victims and perpetrators of crime; their complexity is key to their elusiveness. In addition, street children's independent status positions them outside the realms of child protection which places children under the care of adults, often resulting in limited or no access to services without adult representation. Therefore they have been replaced on the international policy agenda by other vulnerable groups whose human rights violations are much more easily pinned down, such as victims of sexual exploitation or violence, raising fundamental questions around how street children's rights and needs are defined and by whom? However, participatory research is now becoming recognized as one of the more successful ways in which children's voices are beginning to be heard and this can be utilised to offer advice for the inclusion of street children in decision-making and policy development.The aim of this project is therefore to address the policy gap for street children through research knowledge exchange (KE). An academic-practitioner collaborative research project called Growing up on the Streets was established in 2012 collecting longitudinal data over a three year period with 198 street children from three diverse African cities: Harare, Zimbabwe; Accra, Ghana; and Bukavu, DRC. In addition an innovative participatory approach has been adopted whereby street children are actively engaged in undertaking their own research, under the mentorship of street worker project managers, to explore their capabilities on the streets. The findings from the research forms the evidence-base for this KE project which seeks to bridge the gap between current legislation and political attitudes, and street children's realities. The KE project has seven objectives fulfilled over four phases. Phase 1 develops street young people's participation in the research process from inception to policy development. This aims to include street children's views as a regular part of service provision. Phase 2 develops practitioner participation and capacity through the development of workshops that disseminate key messages from the research as well as through establishing a peer network, initially across Africa, for practitioners to discuss and share through an online forum. This network aims to develop capacity and share best practice for the better provision of services to street children. Phase 3 builds on the others for specifically targeting the policy gap. A series of workshops/events in Africa and the UK, inviting Government agencies, UN members and other key stakeholders aims to raise awareness of the research findings, develop policy recommendations and seek to translate them into concrete actions. Public engagement also forms a key strategy for raising awareness for street children's rights. Finally phase 4 includes a process of reflective evaluation during all other phases to ensure their effectiveness. The outcomes of the project seek to offer direct benefit: to street children, by involving them in data analysis and policy dialogue as well as creating NGO training for street children's inclusion in the research process from inception to policy development; to NGOs, by developing a network hub and face-to-face workshops for sharing best practice; and to policy stakeholders (Governments, Donors, International NGOs, UN agencies) through the translation of key messages from the research into policy recommendations with the potential to advocate for direct changes to national and international policy.