Child-Friendly Local Governance
Communities that care
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The Challenges
Every child has the right to grow up in a community where they feel safe, access basic services, clean air and water, can play, learn, grow and where their voice is heard and matters.
With one of the largest urban populations in East Asia due to rapid economic development and urbanization, making cities child-friendly and ensuring children’s voices and their participation are at the heart of local development is especially important for the growing numbers of children who call a city home.
Today, child and youth populations living in cities are increasingly feeling the impacts of urbanization with pressures on social services, infrastructure and environment posing a daily challenge to the growth and comprehensive development of children.
This is especially critical for children from specific segments of the population, particular ethnic groups, who continue to face persistent disparities when it comes accessing essential social services.
This is compounded by the increasingly severe impacts of climate change, especially when weather shocks hit. For children, especially the poor and most vulnerable, it means many do not get the help they need in health, education, protection and participation to thrive and unlock the opportunities that cities offer.
In response, while national plans, laws and policies are developed by central government, the delivery of basic social services is decentralized and ideally accessed at sub-national level. This means local authorities, especially with 80 per cent of public investment now channelled through sub-national governments, have a key role in ensuring quality social services are appropriately resourced and delivered to all children.
The Solutions
This movement supports city governments in nearly every continent to realize children's rights as enshrined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and it makes children’s voices matter in the decisions that affect them most.
It means the needs, priorities and rights of those most vulnerable will help shape their cities’ future. To ensure delivery of child-centred planning and budgeting, child-related indicators are used to hold city decision-makers accountable.
UNICEF supports cities to realize impactful change for children. We also help local governments build their ability to develop child-sensitive budgets with innovative platforms to enable child and adolescent participation in decision-making. This ensures access to the social services that children need most to thrive in clean, green and safe communities
You can be the change for children!
Help UNICEF provide children and families with critical essential services for health and nutrition, education and protection.
Impact
Children and adolescents in all cities have equal access to quality and essential social services, live in a safe clean and healthy environment, and have their voice, needs and priorities heard and taken into account in local planning and budgeting.
