Young people join the municipal government in development of an action plan for Kutaisi to become a child friendly city

KUTAISI, Georgia, 1-2 February, 2022. Young people living in Kutaisi municipality participated in discussions about how to make their city more child friendly and how children and adolescents can get involved in the process. Youngsters were invited to hear about the action plan developed by the city municipality as part of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative, supported by UNICEF.

The city of Kutaisi, with support from UNICEF, has taken specific actions needed for Kutaisi to become part of the Child-Friendly Cities Initiative. Situation analysis of children’s rights and wellbeing in Kutaisi has been completed. The report documents the most important challenges that children in Kutaisi municipality face and it develops a set of high-level recommendations regarding measures that the local authorities can implement to become a Child Friendly City.

Based on this situation analysis the working group at the Kutaisi municipality developed draft strategic directions and an action plan. Before the plan is adopted, it is being discussed with children and youth from Kutaisi and their opinions will be reflected in the final action plan.

“We are happy that following Batumi, now we have a chance to meet and listen to children and young people from Kutaisi. We have to learn what kind of city they want to live in”, - Dr. Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Representative in Georgia.

“We are happy that following Batumi, now we have a chance to meet and listen to children and young people from Kutaisi. We have to learn what kind of city they want to live in”, says Dr. Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Representative in Georgia. “UNICEF will continue close collaboration with Kutaisi Municipality while taking active steps on their way to becoming a Child Friendly City”, Khalil added.

The Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) is a UNICEF-led initiative that supports municipal governments in realizing the rights of children at the local level, using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as its foundation. It is also a network which brings together government and other partners, such as civil society organizations, the private sector, academia, media and, importantly, children themselves who wish to make their cities and communities more child-friendly.

The following steps need to be taken by a city to become part of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative: assessing the situation of children in the city; advocacy and awareness-raising of child rights throughout government and society; enacting child-friendly laws and policies and assessing the impact of these on children;  developing a city-wide strategic action plan with clear budget allocation and accountabilities for implementation; ensuring children get their fair share of resources; informing and involving children and youth and respecting their views and experiences; recognizing children and youth as partners and as individual human beings, rights-holders and equal, active citizens; cross-sectoral coordination and strategic partnerships to maximize the impact of child-friendly policies and programmes.

Building a child-friendly city is a continuous process. In the following phase, the Kutaisi city administration will finalize and approve the one-year action plan and become a CFCI candidate city. Only after the successful implementation of the plan and completion of the CFCI Cycle, Kutaisi will officially be recognized as a Child Friendly City.