Children at risk? Safer cities for kids

Child poverty, it has long been assumed, is a rural phenomenon. But now that almost half the world's population is urbanised, what do we know about children living in urban poverty? And how can urban management support the rights of the child?

What can urban authorities and organisations do to support the rights and requirements of children, asks this new UNICEF publication? Children in urban poverty are at high risk. Many live on land unfit for habitation and are under constant threat of eviction. Lacking easy access to clean water and hygienic sanitation, children live in crowded areas where infectious diseases spread like wildfire. If Schools are overcrowded, understaffed, poorly equipped, and often of little relevance to most children’s culture or future employment. Many don’t bother to attend. Street violence is common. Large-scale migration, urban sprawl and high rates of poverty erode family life and community structures.

Research findings include:

• Decentralisation means that city and municipal authorities are increasingly responsible for provision of basic services for children and their families.
• Although local government is crucial in protecting urban children's rights, local government often has the least power and resources and fewer trained staff.
• Local government sectors affecting children's lives include education, health and social welfare, as well as areas not so commonly associated with children, such as land use planning and management, water and sanitation, policing and job creation.
• Civil society, as well as local government - often constrained by national regulatory frameworks - are both crucial in supporting children’s rights.
• Most bilateral development assistance programmes assign a low priority to services essential for child health and development in accordance with the priorities of recipient national government.
• Official development assistance agency structures are designed to support a few large recipient-government implemented capital projects, not relatively cheaper community-based projects.

Action at the national and international levels is critical. But what can be done effectively at a local level? Even when urban authorities are constrained by lack of funds, skills and power, they can still make a significant difference to the quality of children's lives.

Policy recommendations include:

• Development of local plans must support the needs of children as an on-going process undertaken collaboratively between local government and civil society, and in partnership with the local body for overseeing children's rights.
• National governments need to bring their legislation into compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Local government, in turn must ensure that municipal regulations support the implementation of children's rights.
• Children's interests must be a primary consideration in all budgetary allocations and decisions, involving local government and all civil society groups.
• Ways to involve children and adolescents in municipal decision making should build on their democratic involvement in community-based organisations, schools, and child and youth clubs.
• Children's rights can be actively supported through awareness campaigns in local languages.
• Local action to support the interests of children needs to be based on accurate and relevant data, where the data collection should involve those whose lives are being surveyed and the information should be open and available to all stakeholders.

Source(s):
‘Cities for Children: Children's Rights, Poverty and Urban Management' by Sheridan Barlett, Roger Hart, David Satterthwaite, Ximena de la Barra, and Alfredo Missair UNICEF/Earthscan (1999) Full document.

Funded by: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

id21 Research Highlight: 17 May 2001

Further Information:
David Satterthwaite
International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H ODD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)207 388 2117
Fax: +44 (0)207 388 2826
Contact the contributor: david@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK

UNICEF

Other related links:
Childwatch is a non-governmental network of institutions involved in research for children

Save the Children is dedicated to making lasting positive change in the lives of children in need

Refer to UNICEF's Early Childhood report on 'The State of the World's Children'

CRIN focuses on the rights of children

IYF is dedicated to the positive development of children and youth throughout the world

The World Bank concentrates on Urban Development and includes the Street Children Initiative