"For when the guests come" : the introduction of child participation in Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

A development concept travels from the development organisation's head office strategy, to local practices at a project in rural Ethiopia, and back again. The concept in question, Child Participation (CP),is part of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Save the Children Norway (SCN) in Ethiopia have previously mainly focused on constructing schools and supplying water, but in recent years the strategy has turned to "Child Rights programming". This implies that different project approaches are chosen: among other raising awareness about the CR, and to change harmful practices and attitudes towards children. The CP experts at SCN head assume that children can and should be encouraged to actively participate in changing their society. Through investigating some ways in which the CR and CP were enacted, articulated and practiced by local children and project staff, I attempt to explore the complexity and ambiguities of these introduced principles and assumptions. The thesis also deals with communication of development concepts, and suggests that ambiguities play an important role in transnational communication, in particular in an Ethiopian/ Amhara context.