Bumping into the ‘Glass ceiling’ of Child Participation in Development: Child Forums in Indonesia

In an effort to fulfil international children's right standards on child participation, the Indonesian government provides Child Forums, top-down spaces for child participation in development. The Child Forums have been established, managed, and evaluated based on adult’s dominant perspectives and goals without put serious concern about children perspectives. This research explores how children understand and experience the space of Child Forums. While the government and NGOs direct child participation into top ladder of participation, the children themselves use Child Forums to experience being a child and to shape their abilities for the future. Further, I examine how Child Forums are used by stakeholders to maintain the status quo of 'good' children. In the end, this paper attempts to bring together different perspectives and interest of child participation in Indonesia to deal with unexplored perspectives of children. These children’s perspectives are explained through analysing the ‘glass ceiling’ between a childhood space and another space where adults intervene.