Child-Friendly Cities and Communities

1. Child-Friendly Cities and Communities Christoph Baker Italian Committee for UNICEF Christchurch, 20 March 2009

3. Child-Friendly Cities Climate Changes, Urbanization and Children Rights

4. Child-Friendly Cities Climate Changes, Urbanization and Children Rights

5. Child-Friendly Cities Some reference points: 1959 UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child • UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm 1980 Club of Rome: Limits to Growth 1987 UN Brundlandt Report: “Our Common Future” 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro - Agenda 21 1996 UN II Habitat Conference in Istanbul

6. Child-Friendly Cities Some concepts: • Child Rights • Sustainability • Biodiversity • Think globally, act locally • Good governance • Citizenship • Participation

7. Child-Friendly Cities Concept introduced by UNICEF at the II UN Habitat Conference in Istanbul – 1996 • a “holistic” container for child rights in their everyday life (not a sectorial approach) • Mayors and local administrators as privileged actors • Involvement of the whole community (families, professionals, associations, business, etc.) • kids are visible, kids participate • care for the environment is central

8. Child-Friendly Cities • A Child Friendly City is actively engaged in fulfilling the right of every young citizen to: • Influence decisions about their city • Express their opinion on the city they want • Participate in family, community and social life • Recieve basic services such as health care and education  • Drink safe water and have access to proper sanitation • Be protected from exploitation, violence and abuse

9. Child-Friendly Cities • A Child Friendly City is actively engaged in fulfilling the right of every young citizen to: • Walk safely in the streets on their own • Meet friends and play • Have green spaces for plants and animals • Live in an unpolluted environment • Participate in cultural and social events • Be an equal citizen of their city with access to every service,regardless of ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or disability

10. Child-Friendly Cities Definition of a Child Friendly City (CFC) “A Child Friendly City is a local system of good governance committed to fulfilling children's rights”

11. Child-Friendly Cities Experiences start around the world Italy, The Philippines, Spain, France, Brazil, South Africa, Slovenia, Switzerland, Palestine, Ukraine, Australia, and … New Zealand☺!!!

12. Child-Friendly Cities The establishment of the International Secretariat on Child-Friendly Cities at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence (2000) www.childfriendlycities.org

13. Child-Friendly Cities

14. Child-Friendly Cities The CFC Toolkit (2004) • A framework for Action • Good practices and key references • The CFC database • The 9 Building Blocks • Partnerships and networking

15. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 1. CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION: promoting children’s active involvement in issues that affect them; listening to their views and taking them into consideration in decision-making processes

16. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 2. A CHILD FRIENDLY LEGAL FRAMEWORK: ensuring legislation, regulatory frameworks and procedures which consistently promote and protect the rights of all children

17. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 3. A CITY-WIDE CHILDREN’S RIGHTS STRATEGY: developing a detailed, comprehensive strategy or agenda for building a Child Friendly City, based on the Convention

18. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 4. A CHILDREN’S RIGHTS UNIT OR COORDINATING MECHANISM: developing permanent structures in local government to ensure priority consideration of children’s perspective

19. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 5. CHILD IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION: ensuring that there is a systematic process to assess the impact of law, policy and practice on children - in advance, during and after implementation

20. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 6. A CHILDREN’S BUDGET: ensuring adequate resource commitment and budget analysis for children

21. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 7. A REGULAR STATE OF THE CITY’S CHILDREN REPORT: ensuring sufficient monitoring and data collection on the state of children and their rights

22. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 8. MAKING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS KNOWN: ensuring awareness of children’s rights among adults and children

23. Child-Friendly Cities The nine building blocks 9. INDEPENDENT ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN: supporting nongovernmental organisations and developing independent human rights institutions - children’s ombudspeople or commissioners for children – to promote children’s rights

24. Child-Friendly Cities A child-friendly city and community has: child-friendly schools baby and child-friendly hospitals and health care child-friendly sports and leisure facilities a sustainable environment inter-generational and multi-cultural relations means and tools to implement child-rights

25. Child-Friendly Cities A child-friendly city and community has: warning systems on violence, exploitation, marginalization policies against discrimination and exclusion good monitoring tools on the condition of childhood and adolescence

26. So, what about us???

27. Child-Friendly Cities • The challenge of children’s participation • How to take into account children’s opinions? • children town councils • children city consultations • participatory urban planning • dedicated town councils • Mayors Defenders of children

28. Child-Friendly Cities The Italian Experience • how children town councils work • 90% launched by municipalities, 5% by schools, 5% by NGOs • preferred age group: 10 to 14 year-olds • 15-20 children meet on average 4 times a year • majority of CTCs facilitated by schools • members elected by their peers

29. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation Children Town Councils (ctd) some CTCs have a budget from the adults’ Council some elect “baby-mayors” CTCs have a national Ngo “Democrazia in Erba” 750 CTCs were created in the past 15 years, approx. 500 are currently active

30. Our wishes!!!

31. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation children’s “wish list”: cleaner cities (less pollution, less traffic, more green) safe playing areas “I go to school alone” more bicycle lanes all children equal

33. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation Participatory urban planning local administrations involve children on planning schools create laboratories with technical experts (architects, urbanists, social workers) children elaborate proposals from design to implementation main areas of interest: playing grounds, parks, street signals, meeting places, own media tools,…

35. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation Participation is also: discovering your own city meeting other generations learning about citizenship: rules and duties caring for the common goods becoming environmentally responsible

36. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation some critical points: the danger of tokenism and manipulation promises not kept superficial imitation of adult structures forced to use adult language different time frame for adults and children

37. Child-Friendly Cities The challenge of children’s participation Participation alone does not make the difference the importance of the 9 steps adults must “step down”, ease the pressure children rights are human rights sustainable life-styles reducing the dictatorship of the automobile

39. Child-Friendly Cities The road ahead • UNICEF International Research on Participatory Assessment and Self-Assessment Tools (in 12 countries) • Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change (Dec. 2009) • 5th European Conference on Child-Friendly Cities (Florence, 2010)

40. Grazie e Arrivederci!

41. Child-Friendly Cities www.childfriendlycities.org www.unicef.org www.unicef.it