Smart Child-Friendly Cities within the framefork
of Sustainable, Inclusive & Prosperous Cities
Gora Mboup, Ph.D., President & CEO,
Global Observatory linking Research to Action
gmboup@gora4people.org
www.gora4people.org
Building Smart Child-Friendly Cities for 21st Century India
Plenary Session 1: Including Children in Policy Regulation
New Delhi, India, 28 November 2014
Content
• The urban context
• Child-friendly City Concept and Operational areas
• Smart Child-Friendly Cities Index within the framework of Sustainable, Inclusive
and Prosperous Cities
• Building Smart Child-Friendly Cities start with planning and Designing of Streets
as Public Spaces for a Sustainable City Foundation
• Observatory for Smart Child-friendy Cities
Urban context of sustainability, Inclusiveness
and Prosperity
Urbanization in the World: from a rural
century
to a urban century
19th Century: the Rural Century with 98%
living in villages at the beginning and 90% at
the end of the century
20th Century: the Urban Transition Century
with only 10% living in cities and towns at
the beginning and 47% at the end of the
century
21th Century: the Urban Century with
half of the world living in cities at the
beginning and 70% by 2050
Mega and Meta Cities in India with a population more than 10
26,000
million or more in 2015,
Delhi
28,000
24,000
Mumbai
22,000
20,000
18,000
16,000
14,000
Kolkata
12,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
12,000
—
1990
Indian Cities with a population size near 10 million or
2015
2000
2010 more in2015
10,000
8,000
Ahmadabad
6,000
Bangalore
Chennai (Madras)
4,000
2,000
Hyderabad
Urbanization and rapid land expansion





Endless growth of cities in the periphery
Low density settlements
Reduction of land allocated to streets and public spaces
Growing inequalities between rich and poor
Grave damage to the environment
Urbanization and slum expansion
33% of urban population live in slums
864 million of urban population in developing
countries live in slums
Concept of Child-Friendly Cities
The concept of Child Friendly Cities (CFC) is an embodiment of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child at the local level, where
children’s rights are reflected in policies, laws, programmes and
budgets
In a child friendly city, children are active agents; and their voices and
opinions are taken into consideration and influence decision making
processes
http://childfriendlycities.org/overview/what-is-a-child-friendlycity/
Operational Areas of the Child Friendly City (CFC) Concept
Social Inclusion, Participation & Equality
•
•
•
•
•
Influence decisions about their city
Express their opinion on the city they want
Participate in family, community and social life
Participate in cultural and social events
Be an equal citizen of their city with access to
every service
Environment
• Have green spaces for plants and animals
• Live in an unpolluted environment
Infrastructure & Service Provision
• Receive basic services such as health care and
education
• Access to safe water and adequate sanitation
Safety & Security
• Be protected from exploitation, violence and
abuse
• Walk safely in the streets on their own
• Meet friends play
Milestones in Achievement of Child Friendly Cities
• 1989 – U.N General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Rights of the
Child
• 1990 - World Summit for Children
• 1996 - Second UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) declares
that: “the well-being of children is the ultimate indicator of a healthy
habitat, a democratic society and good governance “ and the Child
Friendly Cities Initiative launched
• 2000 - The International Secretariat of CFCI established
• 2014 – Evaluating progress; Cities for Children: Rapid Urbanisation,
Economic Growth and the Well-being of Children - World Vision
International (Urban October 2014)
Voices from Children during the Urban
October 2014
• In New Delhi, children raised critical questions about the city’s
environmental pollution, solid waste management, child rights, drug
abuse and protection to local authorities in Delhi, UN-Habitat and
partners
• In Recife, children identified violence and lack of infrastructure as the
greatest challenges to a Better Urban Future
• In Beirut, children and youth voiced the challenges they faced living
in the city of Beirut surrounding by conflict
Smart Child-Friendly Cities are Sustainable,
Inclusive & Prosperous
For a city to be smart child-friendly it must be
sustainable, inclusive and prosperous.
It must promote a people-centered approach on
various dimensions such as: city foundation,
infrastructure, environment, economy development,
social development, social inclusion, disaster
exposure, resilience, peace & security, and institutions
& laws
Building Smart Child-Friendly Cities start with planning and
Designing of Streets as Public Spaces for a Sustainable City
Foundation
Urban Planning, Basic infrastructure, Policies
Urban Planning – streets as public spaces
A sustainable city foundation must have a well connected street
network with sufficient land allocated to streets that reduce travel
time and encourage walking, cycling and social interactions. Well
planned streets enhance infrastructure development, environment
sustainability, economic development, social development, and
social inclusion. They make cities resilient and prepared to overcome
natural disasters.
Key findings for Sustainable & Inclusive Prosperity for Cities
Author: Gora Mboup, Ph.D.,
goramboup@yahoo.com
http://mirror.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3513
Land allocated to streets in suburban areas is less than
half its level in the core of the sity
Percentage of land allocated to streets in selected cities (City core & Sub-urban areas)
Key Findings
•Reduction of share of streets in city
• In most cities in developed countries, 25-35% of land are allocated to
streets, with 10-15% in suburban areas
•In most cities in developing countries 10-15% or less are allocated to
streets in the city core and less than 5% in suburban areas
Key Findings
Lack of street is obstacle to building smart child-friendly cities affecting:
- Infrastructure development
- Social development
- Environmental Sustainability
- Disaster Exposure
- Economic development
- Social inclusion
- Resilience
- Peace & security
Citizens are Reclaiming Streets as Public Spaces
No city can claim to be child-friendly when large segments of its
population do not have access to streets.
Livable street puts people first and eases provision of amenities like
seating, play areas, good sidewalks and trees – all these make all
people, particularly children, women and the elderly feel safe and
comfortable.
Observartory linking Research to Action (ORA)
for Smart Child-Friendly Cities
Observatories linking Research to Action
for smart child-friendly cities
" Better Information for better people centered polices” is the
primary goal of GORA
Observatories are institutional homes for development of urban
indicators with quantitative as well as qualitative sources, from classical
sources of information (population and housing censuses and
household surveys) as well as GIS, Big data. They serve monitoring,
evaluation and result-based management. They promote an agenda by
the people for the people. .
Observatory starts with Stakeholders
consultation
Univ.
Cont.
Educ.
Municpalities
Associations
Parastatals
Reg.
Auth.
Housing
Land
Gender
Central
Government
Educ
ParliaMentarians
Voc.
Tr.
Donors
Training
Observatory
for Smart Child
Friendly Cities
Loc.
Auth.
NSO
Infrastructure
Academia
UN
Local
Authorities
SubReg
Research
Press
Women’s
Grps
External
Support
Agencies
Bilaterals
INGOs
Priv.
Sect.
NGOs
Prof.
Soc.
Civil
Society/
Media
Youth
Radio
TV
VulNerablegrps
CityCity
coop
Visualize, analyse and participate - Advocacy &
Communication
Key findings must be taken to people, Children organization
and institutions through user friendly platform of advocacy
and communication accessible to All.
Observatories promote Open data through data visualization
and revolution technology including social media, open
portal, workshops and conferences.
Needs for training & capacity development in the
development and use of indicators for policy
formulation
A major weak link between research and action is in the
difficulty of people, government employees and other
stakeholders to use indicators for policy formulation. People
and technicians as well as managers, and decision-makers,
must be equipped with instruments on the development and
use of indicators to empower themselves and inform policies
and programmes.