The Indonesian National Children’s Consultation (facilitated by YAB Members)

27th October 2023

On 27 October, Youth Advisory Board (YAB) members from Indonesia co-facilitated the Indonesian Children’s Consultation with MAP co-investigator Dr Harla Octarra as lead consultant. The meeting was organised by the Ministry of National Development Planning and supported by UNICEF, with the aim of preparing a 5-year national development plan for child protection.

YAB members, including Haikel, Indri and Kurnia, worked alongside 25 young people and facilitators from different youth groups such as UNICEF young partners, Plan International’s youth group, local and national children’s forums. Together they revisited the five key child protection issues discussed during the previous year’s consultation and worked together to develop a document plan.

Throughout the consultation, all participants actively engaged in the round-table discussions, and provided valuable insights and contributions to the plan. They were also able to capture the results of their discussions in creative ways (timely video content and infographics), which were presented to Ministry officials and consultants at the end of the day.

YAB members hope that their collective efforts will help shape the future of Indonesian children, and contribute to the vision of a Child-Friendly Indonesia 2030 and a Golden Indonesia 2045.

Participating in the national child consultation was a very valuable experience for me, because I was able to be involved in one of the national child protection development processes where my role was to help gather information that is so important for children.

I really felt proud and happy to be involved in this process, I never imagined I would be in this situation or position (as a facilitator). Meeting children from different provinces in Indonesia was a great experience for me.

I learnt many things from this child consultation, for example I had never been in contact with children with disabilities before, and I didn’t know what attitude I should show them, but in this activity ka Harla, Haikel and Ibnu helped me a lot and told me how my attitude and behaviour should be: like I should be a little slow when explaining something to them. In addition, I also understood better how to listen to someone when talking and how to look for more information when I needed more data.

Then, meeting children from various regions is enough to open my insight into the conditions in various regions, many conditions are very alarming. I had never been with/experienced before… they also did not hesitate to share stories with me, I am happy to be able to hear various unique and interesting stories.

Indri, Indonesian YAB member

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I feel very proud to be able to take part in this National Development Planning (on Child Protection). Moreover, this activity is only carried out every 5 years and I was immediately given this wonderful opportunity by Kak Harla to facilitate this activity together with Indri and Kurnia. It was also great to be able to work together with the policymakers, children from different regions/institutions, and their facilitators. During the activities with them, I felt that I gained quite a lot of knowledge that I might not have known before. And from there, I learnt to be a good listener/observer, because I also didn’t want to miss any information/interesting things from them. I also learned to adjust my position, such as trying to be a friend to them (especially children) so that they can communicate with me more closely and not be limited to the position between facilitator and participants which might make them feel awkward. Most importantly, I learned to improvise, such as in explaining the material or answering their questions.

Haikel, Indonesian YAB member