Acknowledgements

This handbook owes a debt to the more than 1,500 children, as well as caregivers, educators, humanitarian NGOs, social workers, engineers, designers, volunteers, municipal board members and international experts across different fields, that participated in CatalyticAction co-design processes over the past six years. It is the outcome of collective learning over decades of practice from those who volunteered to provide ideas, feedback, examples, interacted with the DeCID team, or provided the material from which we draw. While we have tried to acknowledge all inputs, it is not always possible to credit ideas that emerged from different people and documents over a number of years.

We are particularly indebted to the work of UNICEF and UN-Habitat, who have led thinking around children’s participation and children in cities, delivering inspiring projects across the work and providing excellent publications. In particular, the following people played a major role in the publication of this handbook: Thomas George (UNICEF), Cecilia Andersson (UN-Habitat), Laura Petrella (UN-Habitat), Dyfed Aubrey (UN-Habitat), Philimon Majwa (UNICEF), Jiacong Ang (UN-Habitat), Sohel Rana (UN- Habitat), Jose Chong (UN-Habitat), Jonathan Weaver (UN-Habitat), and Bernard Heng (UN-Habitat). We would like to thank Sudeshna Chatterjee (Action for Children’s Environments) for her critical review and her role in coordinating UNICEF’s input into the draft.

Our sincere appreciation goes to Howayda Al-Harithy (AUB), Sheridan Bartlett (CUNY), Cecilia Vaca-Jones (Bernard van Leer Foundation), Emanuela Rizzo (Save The Children Jordan), Sara Candiracci (ARUP), Catalina Ortiz (UCL), Camillo Boano (UCL), Pablo Sendra (UCL), Alexandre Apsan Frediani (UCL), Sandra D’Urzo (IFRC), Nerea Amoros Elorduy (Creative Assemblages), Dyfed Aubrey (UN-Habitat), Lady Habchy (UN Habitat), Gareth Owen (Save The Children UK), Elie Mansour (UN-Habitat), Samer Schinder (UN Habitat), Maryam Nazzal (UN-Habitat), Karen Sawaya (UN-Habitat), Samar Al-Skaff (UN-Habitat), Elkin Velazquez (UN-Habitat), Nisrine Yassine (WarChild Holland), Dani Koussa (WarChild Holland), Glynis Clacherty, Abdulrahman Abdulghani (Inter-agency coordination unit UNHCR), Rita Karam (MOSA Lebanon), Fabienne Akiki (Himaya), Bobby Beaumont (The Flying Seagull Project), Yasaman Esmaili (Studio Chahar), Prasanna Desai, Barry Percy-Smith (University of Huddersfield), Mashal Hammoud (Sawa), Ali Fakhreddine (TDH Italy), Mona Hallak (AUB the Neighborhood Initiative), Taline Khayat (World Learning), Abir Abi Khalil (UNICEF), Mansoor Al-Cheikh (IOCC), Sally Neouchy (IOCC), Nada Hammoud (Social Support Society), Ghifar Anani (Basmeh w Zeitooneh), Sara Shama (Jusoor), Amro Al-Mais, Moayyad Hamadallah, Medhi Al-Homsi, Fayad Al-Houjayri, Ahmad Chamas, Ramy Sabek (CatalyticAction), Kelly Alvarez Doran (MASS Design Group), Peter Oborn (Commonwealth Association of Architects), Krista Armstrong (ICRC), Simeon Shtebunaev (Birmingham City University).

We acknowledge input from staff at Save the Children who took part in the handbook’s pilot training.

Special thanks to the dissertation fellows who have further investigated some of the key aspects of the DeCID handbook as part of their MSc dissertation at the Development Planning Unit (UCL): Laia Gemma Gracia, Luke Bostian, Isabel Madrazo De Otaduy, Aisha Aminu, Evangeline Nicolaides and Krista Armstrong.

We thank the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and UK Research and Innovation, who generously funded this work.