Child participation in local planning and budgeting

In Hämeenlinna, Finland, 14 and 15 year old students vote on key initiatives that they want to influence in local planning or budgeting.

Each school has two child representatives on the local Youth Council which has an annual budget that can be used for the initiatives with the highest number of votes.

Youth Council members also contribute to the drafting of the local CFCI action plan.

In addition, children created a dictionary in which complex terms often used in municipal governance such as ‘action plan’, ‘strategy’, ‘budget’ are explained in easy-to-understand language. The dictionary is available on-line.