The Child Friendly Cities Initiative

Over the last 15 years, numerous local, regional and national initiatives to make cities more child friendly have been launched worldwide. Experience has shown that the implementation of children's rights at local level goes hand in hand with improved living conditions for all age groups within society. This applies not only to developing countries but to industrialised nations as well. This paper describes the development and background of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI). In support of the initiative, the International Secretariat of the CFCI at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, produced documentation and tools that are being used worldwide by individuals, institutions and organisations committed to promoting children's rights and realising child friendly environments at local level. The paper outlines the key elements of a child friendly city, as determined by the Secretariat in consultation with a wide range of partners. This article also describes the efforts of the Swiss Committee for UNICEF in implementing the initiative in Switzerland. The main aspects of the Swiss programme are the self-assessment of communities with the help of a questionnaire, the implementation of workshops with children and young people, and the elaboration of a work plan.