MCDP employs an active and meaningful participation of the local community, target beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders in all stages of its program management cycles-project/program inception through final evaluation and handing over. As pro-child organization , MCDP arranges Child structures that assists children voices out their concern in any local development endeavor that affect their well-being as well as participate in MCDP’s project/program planning. Thus, the Active participation approach of MCDP pursues through the following:
Child Participation Structure (CPS): MCDP has established a child participation structure with the objective of creating an opportunity for children in the target area to participate in addressing child labor and child trafficking problems in particular and child-wellbeing in general. The structure has its own office in which it coordinates its activities in relation to the issues. Members of the structure participate in regional meeting in various countries of Africa to share experience about activities being carried out by the countries and share experience to their friends which contributes a lot to reduce child labor and traffic in the target area. The Regional Networking for mitigation of child labor, such as African Movement for Working Children and Youth (AMWCY), has served as an inspiration for working children of the project.
Participation of Community, including Government: Participation of the community is manifested in various projects of the organization. Members of the community are involved in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of integrated programs of MCDP. The participatory evaluation helped MCDP to see the possible intervening areas that should be implemented in these projects. The participatory lesson review of the past term enabled MCDP to gain reflections of different stakeholders (beneficiaries, children, community members, women advisory groups, local government institutions, schools etc) on the pros and cons of the project components as well as revisiting them for future planning. The participation of the Development Committee was also considered so vital. It is a customary procedure in MCDP's management to gain the consent of the community in planning every project through the representation of members of the Development Committee. The same process was adopted while planning this project.
