Child- and Adolescent-Friendly Cities

Key facts on Belarus reflecting children

Highly urbanized country: over 78% live in cities

Child Population – 1.9 mln (19.6%)

10.4% of children lived below the national absolute poverty line in 2018

Out of 115 cities, 25 joined CAFC initiative (they account for 50% of child population in the country)

What is a Child- and Adolescent-Friendly city?

The Child- and Adolescent-Friendly City brings together governments, public and private organizations, educational institutions, the media, and most importantly, children and adolescents - all those who want to make cities the best environment for the younger generation.

In Belarus the initiative was launched in 2007 and scaled up within the current programme cycle to bring an explicit children’s focus into traditional adult-oriented governance system, create enabling environment for child development, promote inter-sectoral collaboration and partnership to address child issues, monitor child rights realization and ensure a meaningful children’s/ youth participation in decision making.

Why is it important?

The Child- and Adolescent-Friendly City brings together governments, public and private organizations, educational institutions, the media, and most importantly, children and adolescents - all those who want to make cities the best environment for the younger generation.

In Belarus the initiative was launched in 2007 and scaled up within the current programme cycle to bring an explicit children’s focus into traditional adult-oriented governance system, create enabling environment for child development, promote inter-sectoral collaboration and partnership to address child issues, monitor child rights realization and ensure a meaningful children’s/ youth participation in decision making.

Participation is one of the basic and guiding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children and adolescents not only have the right to participate in all the decision-making processes that affect their lives, but also have to be considered as equal citizens and change-makers.

“Nothing for youth without youth” is written in all 7 Resource Centres for young people opened thanks to cooperation of UNICEF in Belarus, governmental and non-governmental bodies and private sector and reflects our commitment to empowerment of the potential of children and adolescents. Our priority is to provide young people with opportunities and resources in order to develop needed competencies that they can employ to build more inclusive and fair society.

Children and adolescents are officially recognized as development accelerator in Belarus which confirms that their creative and innovative potential is a capacity building resource at local, national and international level. 44 indicators within 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are directly related to children and adolescents and that is why cannot be achieved without involving them. Children and adolescents are local actors who are able to raise awareness on SDGs, to advocate for local actions as well as to contribute to implementation and monitoring on their achievement. “No one left behind” principle ensures that children’s and adolescents’ opinions and views, including vulnerable groups, are as important as any others.

How do we develop a CAFC?

To empower children and adolescents, to develop competences needed for their active participation and to create common understanding of parliamentarian principles, values and policies UNICEF in Belarus implements variety of activities within the project “Decide and do together” in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Poland. Project activities include the establishment of 7 Youth Initiative Promotion Resource Centres, educational programmes for parliamentarians, working out of concept notes and methodological materials on youth parliaments, etc.

Child and adolescent participation in SDGs localization can be ensured through harmonization of indicators of Index of child friendliness of city to SDGs indicators related to children. This harmonization was made through involvement of national stakeholders involved in the monitoring on SDGs achievement as well as Child Friendly Cities. After it will be approved by CFC Coordination Committee, each city which joins CAFC platform will have to ensure and enable child and adolescent participation in SDGs localization.

Our achievements - what has been done so far

25 cities in Belarus have joined CAFC platform since 2008.

25 Adolescent Parliaments have been created in all cities and recognized by local authorities.

The National Coordination Body (Coordination Council on CAFC) was established under the auspices of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child composing of the officials of the National Assembly, Ministries of Health, Education, Labor and Social Protection, Foreign Affairs, representatives of NGOs, Local Authorities and UNICEF. The Coordination Council is chaired by the Deputy Minister of Education and functions in accordance with the regulation.

The normative and methodological frameworks were developed including the methodological guidelines, regulation of the accession to the CAFC implementation and certification of the honorary title “Child- and Adolescents-Friendly City”.

CAFC: next steps

Child-friendly policies and frameworks

Incorporation of the CAFC platform and activities of the children’s and youth parliaments in the State Education and Youth Policy Program (2016—2020)

Development of the National Strategy on the sustainable development of adolescents

Child-oriented budgeting

Capacity development of the national and local authorities on the child-oriented budgeting and optimization of the local budget spending in the best interest of children

Knowledge management and evidence generation

Collecting data and evidence with direct and active participation of children
Supporting experience exchange and cross-country best practice sharing

Empowering children and adolescents

Empowering children and adolescents for their proactive participation in the decision making addressing the needs of the most vulnerable
Developing knowledge and skills of adolescents (parliaments) on SDGs, child rights monitoring, financial literacy and budgeting
Improving equal access to essential services (youth-friendly health centers, peer education, network of supporters for adolescents living with HIV, etc.

Public communication & awareness raising on children’s rights and CAFC

Broad outreach to stakeholders on the essence of CAFC in the framework of the SDG implementation through mass media, online resources