Ecuador

Community Defenses of Children and Adolescents

City/State/Region
Begin – End: 2003 – 2008
Name of organization in charge: Defensoría del Pueblo
Type of organization in charge: government civil society
Level: national

Impact

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Implementation: was the innovation effectively, partially or not put into practice at all?

Fulfillment of Aims: were the goals of the innovation completely, partially or not achieved at all?

Output: has the innovation generated recommendations, initiatives, decisions or policies?

Outcome: if there were a policy output, was it enacted or implemented?

Implementation: yes
Fulfillment of Democratic Innovation’s aim: partial
Output: -
Policy Outcome: -

The Community Defenses for Children and Adolescents are part of the national decentralized system of comprehensive protection for youth. They offer an institutional opportunity for the coordination of activities aimed at promoting, monitoring and defending the rights of children and adolescents at the community level - especially in neighborhoods and rural sectors. A community defense can be established on the initiative of the communities. For this, participating in a process of socialization and training on violence, conflict management, and the rights of children and adolescents is necessary. This is provided by institutions or organizations endorsed by the cantonal councils for children and adolescents. Additionally, the defenses can recieve technical assistance from different public and private institutions. Despite having been conceived as spaces for the political participation of children, with the aim of empowering their voices, in practice these institutions merge as mediators and recipients of complaints. Even more, in coordination with the Ombudsman's Office, they may have the administrative and judicial powers to intervene in cases of rights violations.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization: embedded in the constitution/legislation
Frequency: regular
Mode of selection of participants: open
Type of participants: citizens
Decisiveness: democratic innovation yields a binding decision
Co-Governance: yes

Means

Deliberation
Direct Voting
E-Participation
Citizen Representation

Ends

Accountability
Responsiveness
Rule of Law
Political Inclusion
Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting

Formulation and decision-making

Implementation

Policy Evaluation