Children and young people are increasingly taking part in international events and meetings. The impetus for this is a growing awareness of their entitlement to be heard in all matters affecting them, including being heard on international policy generated by bodies such as the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE). The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has welcomed the contributions of NGOs in this regard; it ‘encourages them to further promote child participation in all matters affecting them, including at the grass-roots, community, and national or international levels’, and to facilitate exchanges of best practices (United Nations, 2009 para. 10).

Since the 1990s, mainly due to changes to legislation and good practice guidelines, many child participation structures, such as Children’s Parliaments and Youth Councils, have been established. A recent study by Janta et al. (2021) found more than 300 such mechanisms exist that enable children and young people to express their views and have them taken into account in decision-making at local, national and EU levels. While activities and levels of children and young people’s involvement vary between countries, the authors found that these structures typically focus on consultation and fact-finding initiatives. Few provide evidence of the impact or influence of children and young people’s views on policy and decision-making processes.

This article explores the experiences of both the children and young people and adult decision-makers who met at international fora as a result of a programme (‘Young Leaders’) developed by World Vision, a global NGO (World Vision, 2017). The study represented here is the first to explore whether child participation differs when children and young people are taken outside their national context to engage with global decision-makers and, if so, how it differs. It is also the first study to capture the experiences of both the children and young people and adults attending the same events. This becomes highly relevant as more opportunities for children and young people to engage in policy forums have been observed globally; thus, mechanisms and standards need to be in place to ensure that their engagement is ethical, meaningful and resourced, in order to fulfil the obligation that that adult decision-makers engage with children and young people directly.

The article begins with a description of the Young Leaders programme and the methods adopted in the study. The findings are explored under three key themes: representation, capacity and impact. What emerges is a rich picture of the value of children’s participation, and distinctive challenges, and recommendations for making the experience more effective going forward. The article concludes by reflecting on the fact that adults and children and young people often had different perceptions of the value and limitations of these events and the implications this has for organising such events in the future.