Introduction

The present research on children, their rights, childhood and other related themes is scattered across various forums. These forums include different websites, journals, government documents, research by think tanks, civil society organisations and original contributions by academicians. Furthermore, there is a considerable dearth of platforms for sharing/ publishing content on children, especially that which is also comprehendible for children themselves. Recognising these gaps, the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation(KSCF) envisions the creation of a Research Commons which would attempt to bring wide-ranging information on all aspects of children under one umbrella portal. The idea of a Research Commons is to create a global platform to access information and enable dialogue through knowledge sharing, publication of original work and interactions. In addition to access to content and information on different child-related themes, researchers, academicians, NGOs, and governments can explore interdisciplinary, and emerging research methods on child rights and connect with each other. The Research Commons would be hosted by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. The contributions could come from different countries, international institutions and global networks.

Vision

The Research Commons is envisioned to create an open portal for readers and contributors to create awareness and raise the discourse on issues relating to children by enabling a multidimensional, interdisciplinary and free-flowing dialogue among stakeholders, thinkers, academicians and international organisations. Research commons shall propagate plurality of thoughts, ideas and action. It is aimed to become a platform that not only embraces the presence of multiple perspectives, opinions, research methodologies but also enables its readers to arrive at their own opinions/conclusions.

Objective

The key objectives of the Research Commons are:

1. To create a dedicated space for knowledge sharing of all evidence based content on children and issues related to them.
2. To provide a credible and reputed platform to publish original content for achieving higher academic credentials for researchers.
3. To provide a learning platform for people to interact, learn and review each other’s work.
4. To enable children to access child-friendly content for regular consumption and also to create a space for them to contribute on issues related to them.

Mission

Through Research Commons platform, KSCF aims to achieve its mission to:

• Create a Global Agenda: Identify problems and issues relating to children at a global level and disseminate information regarding them for research, policy and advancement of child rights.
• Develop Actionable Insights: Governments, policy-makers could use the platform to share and disseminate best practices in dealing with issues relating to children.
• Design Comprehensive Research-Driven Solutions: Provide a platform for a discussion on the problems relating to children which may lead to emergence of solutions and ideas to address these problems.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Multi-stakeholder engagement, partnerships, collaborations and networks could be explored. The platform envisages to bring together organisations working on child rights and governments of different countries, virtually which can possibly lead to greater convergence for the rights of children on the ground.