Most of the initiatives and programmes that InformEd works with target children.  Gathering, understanding, quantifying child perspectives is essential.  I’ve spent several years trying different mechanisms for child focus group discussions.  The challenge has always been, how do we get the quieter child to voice her opinion?  I’ve tried disaggregating groups by sex but there still seems to be one or two children who dominate the conversation.  Quickly children follow suite, simply agreeing with their colleagues.

Recently, while carrying out an evaluation for Save the Children Norway, I tried the H-Method for child participation in the evaluation.  It worked well and it ignited some very informative and interesting discussions among the children.  Here’s how it works so that you can give it a go yourself: