The SDGs Academy for Children champions have been a valued component and addition to the Africa Children Summit, right from the inaugural summit in Nairobi, April 2023, to the processes leading to the upcoming 2nd summit in Johannesburg.
During a 2-day Kenya presummit held in Nairobi, 13 champions from the Academy were meaningfully engaged in leading conversations and coming up with Kenya-led recommendations to the main summit in South Africa.
Conversations during the presummit centered around education for children and how its impacted by emerging trends in artificial intelligence, climate change and violence. Further, there were reflections on empowering meaningful children participation in education.
“Empowering children in education means fostering their curiosity and confidence” child at the pre-summit.
With the over 150 children at the presummit divided in three groups, they delved deep into discussions and later offering recommendations for better education for children in the wake of artificial intelligence, the climate crisis and evolving forms of violence against children. Children recommended establishment of ‘peace rooms’ in schools where children would feel comfortable and relieve stress, while being empowered to understand their rights in education.
Notably, Mathew, a champion from the Academy led discussions on violence against children and promoting inclusive education for all children. The group emphasized on the need for schools to be sensitive and consider children with special needs. While it was appreciated Kenya had made positive strides in averting violence against children in schools, there was need to continuously empower children to understand their rights and stay safe in schools.
“Perpetrators of violence are often weak and most at times try to appear strong to just scare us to get away with the violence. Children should be empowered and educated on how to handle perpetrators, defend themselves and report violence” Mathew.
At the end of the presummit, one of the champions from the Academy, 16-year-old Portia was selected among 10 other representatives from Kenya. The representatives will cascade the conversations in the pre summit at a continental level in the main summit in Johannesburg in April 2024.
The Kenya pre-summit served to spur perspectives and recommendations from the children in Kenya into the continental discourse on children rights and meaningful children participation.