It Starts with Children - Local Actions for Inclusive Urban Futures

Sarah Sabry

Facilitator

November 6, 2024 | 15:00 - 16:30

Multipurpose room 16

Save the Children International

United Kingdom

English

Reference:

NE 16-05

WUF12

Networking Events

Summary

The Global Alliance – Cities4Children works to ensure that urban areas are better for children and young people. The Secretariat of Cities4Children is led and hosted by the Urban Hub team at Save the Children International. We facilitate collaboration between our 28 member organisations for greater collective impact, influence, joint advocacy and communications, multilevel collaboration for improved local service provision and inclusive and participatory governance. On our website www.cities4children.org you can find information about our member organisations as well as our research series, a knowledge hub, a blog with evidence-based ideas for action and recordings of our webinars.
At this WUF12, we will kick off a dialogue to inform our next pivotal milestone of Cities4Children: further localising the impact for children in cities. In this event, we will ask local and regional governments what it will take to create neighbourhoods and cities that prioritise children's and young people's well-being. This joint event is a collaboration between various members of CIties4Children: Save the Children, UCLG, Cities Alliance, Van Leer Foundation, UNICEF, World Vision, ISOCARP, SDI, Habitat for Humanity, FIA Foundation and BYCS. This networking event will ask local and regional governments how they are prioritising the needs and rights of children in urban environments and what is needed to advance a greater focus on children and youth in their agendas.
Sustainable urban development also requires adequate financing, and locally-led solutions often prove to be the most cost-effective. Investing in child-friendly urban development not only enhances the well-being of children but also yields significant financial benefits for communities at large. Therefore, at WUF12, we will emphasise the importance of increasing financing for sustainable urban development with children and young people in mind.

The planned flow of the event is as follows:
1. Introduction: The Global Alliance – Cities4Children and the wealth of resources on our website: research, tools, blogs, training, webinars, etc.
2. Input from a young representative on key messages from the Children & Youth Assembly and Roundtable
3. Moderated discussion between members of the Global Alliance - Cities4Children on why children must be central to the priorities of local and city governments and how we can make neighbourhoods and cities better for children and young people.
4. Discussion on how we can encourage local and city government to prioritise children and what support is needed.

Objectives

The main objectives of this session are:
1. To convene local and regional government representatives and key networks of local and city governments, and share with them ideas that are relevant to make their cities and neighbourhoods better for children and youth. These come from the wealth of experience of Cities4Children members.
2. To better understand the support local and city governments seek to advance a child-friendly city/neighbourhood agenda. This will inform the planning of the Global Alliance - Cities4Children.
3. To promote a paradigm shift: cities and neighbourhoods must plan for the needs of children and establish mechanisms for the participation of children, youth, and their caregivers in urban governance.
4. To facilitate a dialogue between member organisations of Cities4Children and local governments.
5. To put children’s needs at the centre stage in the localisation agenda as well as in the local and regional governments' agendas.
6. To advocate for policy and program frameworks promoting safe, sustainable, and inclusive cities for children.
7. Inspire attendees with pilot projects/examples from around the world to foster future commitments.