Child Friendly Cities
UNICEF NZ is party to the international Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) and is a member of the Asia Pacific Network to promote child friendly cities.
Underpinning the CFCI is the reality that people’s lives are shaped by early experiences and local authorities are on the front line in many matters affecting children.
Where and how children live, learn, grow and play depends on adults, who need to be well informed about children’s rights and views for making decisions that reflect the value of children as important stakeholders and inheritors of the future city.
Children do not vote and with no electoral influence, yet with a major stake in the future of the city, their needs, views and rights are often overlooked in city planning. Children are destined to live with the results of planning often undertaken without any reference to their rights, wellbeing and aspirations.
A Child Friendly City ensures that children are integral to planning and that processes for their opinions and input into plans for city development are actively canvassed and in place.
Whangarei wants to be the first UNICEF-approved Child Friendly City in New Zealand. Watch this space!
Whangarei's Children's Day celebration. Hannah Mitchell, Child Friendly Cities Co-ordinator, and partner Mikey gave children a chance to comment on how to make Whangarei more child friendly.
In Child Friendly Cities, children and young people can:
If you want to learn more about Child Friendly Cities, you can:
Underpinning the CFCI is the reality that people’s lives are shaped by early experiences and local authorities are on the front line in many matters affecting children.
Where and how children live, learn, grow and play depends on adults, who need to be well informed about children’s rights and views for making decisions that reflect the value of children as important stakeholders and inheritors of the future city.
Children do not vote and with no electoral influence, yet with a major stake in the future of the city, their needs, views and rights are often overlooked in city planning. Children are destined to live with the results of planning often undertaken without any reference to their rights, wellbeing and aspirations.
A Child Friendly City ensures that children are integral to planning and that processes for their opinions and input into plans for city development are actively canvassed and in place.
Whangarei wants to be the first UNICEF-approved Child Friendly City in New Zealand. Watch this space!
Whangarei's Children's Day celebration. Hannah Mitchell, Child Friendly Cities Co-ordinator, and partner Mikey gave children a chance to comment on how to make Whangarei more child friendly.
Life in a child friendly city
In Child Friendly Cities, children and young people can:
- Influence decisions about their community / city.
- Express their opinions on the community / city they want.
- Participate in family, cultural, community / city and social life.
- Be safe and protected from exploitation, violence and abuse.
- Meet friends and have places and spaces to play and enjoy themselves.
- Have green spaces for plants and animals.
- Live in a clean, unpolluted environment.
- Be an equal citizen, with access to every service regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or ability.
Learn more
If you want to learn more about Child Friendly Cities, you can:
- Listen to our Advocacy Manager Barbara Lambourn discuss UNICEF's role in promoting child friendly cities on national radio, or view her presentation from Wellington's Sustainable Cities Seminar.
- Visit the Child Friendly Cities website.
- Visit the Child Friendly Asia Pacific website.
- Read Local Government: Respecting the Rights of our Children.
