UNICEF's global Child Friendly Cities Initiative
Within a few years, more than half of the world’s child population will live in urban areas. About 70% of people in Russia are urban dwellers. Life in a big city has many advantages, yet at the same time it exposes children to unexpected risks and dangers. Children have to deal with such problems as heavy traffic, polluted air, criminal environment on the streets, etc. It is often difficult for children to find a safe place to play in close proximity to their homes. On the other hand, cities provide a wide array of opportunities. Thanks to a high population density, education, healthcare and other services are more accessible, with the cost of services per child or family considerably reduced. Moreover, urban residents have regular access to mass media and more opportunities to discuss and address through joint efforts the existing problems. The UNICEF “Child-Friendly Cities” initiative is a tool that helps to reduce the negative impact of urban environment on children’s lives and use to the maximum extent possible the opportunities and advantages that the city offers. Participation in this initiative contributes to the implementation at the municipal level of commitments assumed by the Russian Federation upon its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A child-friendly city is not a model of an ideal city; neither it is a title awarded for outstanding achievements. Involvement in this initiative implies that its participants seek to care for children on a regular basis and, having achieved success, they do not cease their activities. The concept of a child-friendly city is actually a programme committed to assisting municipal authorities in building a city which is friendly towards children in all its aspects, particularly governance, infrastructure and services. The specific feature of this initiative, that makes it radically different from other social programmes and initiatives, is children’s and young people’s mandatory participation in decision-making processes on all matters affecting their interests.
There cannot be a single action plan common for all the participants, as all the cities have their own specific character and needs. The initiative envisages the possibility for each participating city to carry out its own assessment of the situation of children in the city and identify its own priorities. All the participating cities are expected to devise mid- and long-term programmes to ensure effective implementation of children’s rights with clear-cut goals, criteria and indicators, adequate financing, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms as well as relevant advocacy activities. The following elements should be common for all the participating cities: A Child Friendly City is a city where: The “Child-Friendly Cities” initiative is currently being implemented in London, Paris, Munich, Buenos-Aires and many other big cities worldwide, including such countries as France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Brazil. An International Secretariat for Child Friendly Cities was established in 2000 at UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Italy. The Secretariat works to build up the capacity of cities for the development of children-related agendas through research activities, sharing experiences and information and promoting cooperation with the municipal authorities, NGOs and youth associations. All the Child Friendly Cities are brought together under national and international networks. E.g., the European Network of Child Friendly Cities operates in Europe, with its participating cities meeting once in two years at the international conference “The Child in the City” to share their thinking and disseminate good practices. Participants from other countries (Brazil, Canada, etc.) are also invited to attend the conference. In Russia, the cities of Moscow, St.Petersburg and Krasnodar were the first to join the UNICEF initiative. Some other cities, including Izhevsk, Vologda, Chelyabinsk, Salekhard and Volgograd, have also shown a keen interest in the process.
If you are interested in joining the Initiative, please contact UNICEF Moscow office: Address: 9, Leontyevsky lane
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