City kids: responding to children’s rights

Hundreds of millions of the world’s urban children live in deepest poverty. They lack secure homes, access to basic services and education, and are often exposed to violence and exploitation. Their prospects are damaged and their rights contravened by preventable conditions that undermine their health and development.

An edition of UNICEF’s publication Innocenti Digest examines the scale and depth of urban poverty as it affects children and the potential of good urban governance to promote positive change. It argues that a key step in eradicating urban poverty and exclusion lies in prioritising children’s needs in planning and resource allocation. This is best achieved when governments and aid agencies accept the often disproportionate impact their decisions can have for children, and recognise the capacity and rights of young people and their parents to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

The authors show that that:

• The scale of urban poverty remains largely unrecognised, masked by aggregate statistics comparing urban and rural areas, and by poverty lines that underestimate the costs of urban living.
• In general, poor urban families are exposed to greater health risks, vulnerability to natural disasters, risk of eviction and exposure to crime and violence. The impacts for children can be especially devastating.
• Many low income countries still have child mortality rates in poor urban communities as high as 100 to 200 per 1000 live births. In neighbourhoods served by piped water, sanitation, drainage, waste removal and a good health care system, child mortality rates are more generally around 10 per 1000 live births.
• In many countries more than half the poor urban children are malnourished.
• The diseases that underlie child deprivation and death are often called diseases of poverty: a more accurate term would be diseases of poor, unaccountable, undemocratic urban governance.

This edition of Innocenti Digest offers many examples of cities and towns where authorities are working to protect the health and security of children in poverty, promote their social inclusion, ensure respect for their human rights and involve them as partners:

• In Barra Mansa, Brazil, democratically elected young people are formally involved in participatory budgeting.
• Child-friendly policing is being promoted in Kolkata, India by sensitising police officers to the needs of working children.
• Children in the Dominican Republic are working with local authorities to create safe play spaces in areas where drug and alcohol use are widespread.
• In the Philippines a government-backed Child Friendly movement is providing basic service programmes focused on the needs of children.
• A non-governmental organisation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has persuaded initially-wary garment factory owners that on-site nurseries reduce absenteeism and boost productivity.

The UNICEF-coordinated Child Friendly Cities movement is gathering momentum. In order to respond to children’s rights and to broaden their access to basic services and adequate opportunities in life, municipal authorities must strive to ensure that:

policies and resource allocations are made in a manner that is in the best interests of children

young people and young children’s caregivers are given the right and opportunity to participate in decision-making processes

legislative and fiscal commitments are made by governments

city-wide partnerships are built, bringing together municipal authorities, community organisations, the private sector and other groups involved in issues affecting children.