Sustainable urban cities for all children

In an era of rapid urbanisation, over half the world's people - including more than a billion children - now live in cities and towns. Urban areas - cities and towns - of course, offer a great potential for leading a secure life. Traditionally, when children's well-being is assessed, a comparison is drawn between the indicators for children in rural areas and those in urban settings. Children and youths (the most vulnerable groups of any community) in urban areas are often better off than their rural counterparts in relation to higher standards of health, sanitation, protection, education, recreation and so on. But urban advancements have long been uneven, and millions of children in marginalised urban settings confront daily challenges and deprivations of their rights. The publication Children in an Urban World focuses mainly on those children living in urban areas all over the world. They face a particularly complex set of challenges to their development and fulfilment of their rights. It also stresses the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the first international treaty to state the full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights related to children.
The 'report' is divided into five chapters. 'Chapter 1: Children in an increasingly urban world' portrays an urban future; by 2050, 7 in 10 people will live in urban areas. Every year, the world's urban population increases by approximately 60 million people. Most of this growth is taking place in low- and middle-income countries. Within cities, and particularly within the rapidly growing cities of low- and middle-income countries, reside millions of children who face similar, and sometimes worse, exclusion and deprivation than children living in rural areas. Physical proximity to a service does not guarantee access. Indeed, many urban inhabitants live close to schools or hospitals but have little chance of using these services. Inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation services puts children at increased risk of illness, under-nutrition and death.
'Chapter 2: Children's rights in urban settings' looks at the situation of children in urban settings and considers in particular their rights to health; water, sanitation and hygiene; education and protection. Evidence suggests that more children have want of shelter and sanitation than they are deprived of food, education and health care; and that the poor sanitation, lack of ventilation, overcrowding and inadequate natural light common in the homes of the urban poor are responsible for chronic ailments among their children. Since children have the rights to survival, adequate health care and a standard of living that supports their full development, they need to benefit from environmental conditions that make the fulfilment of these rights possible.
'Chapter 3: Urban challenges' examines some of the phenomena shaping the lives of children in urban areas: drugs, HIV/AIDS, child labour, sexual harassment, disasters etc.  Crime and violence affect hundreds of millions of children in urban areas which can hinder children's development resulting in poor academic performance and higher dropout rates, anxiety, depression, aggression and problems with self-control. The causes of violence affecting children in urban areas are many and complex, but prominent among them are poverty and inequality. The insufficient provision of public services and such community infrastructure as schools and recreational areas is common to the cities of low-income countries and those in high-income countries whose governments are prone to social austerity. High rates of crime and violence often prevail in such places.
 'Chapter 4: Towards cities fit for children' presents some examples of efforts to improve the urban realities that children confront. In Bangladesh, the Basic Education for Hard-to-Reach Urban Working Children project was set up to provide quality non-formal basic education. Between 2004 and 2011, the programme reached almost 200,000 children in six cities, which proves that the project was effective in addressing the children's needs to receive a quality education. The UN-Women Global Program on Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women & Girls, working in partnership with five cities around the world, endeavours to find the best comprehensive approaches to prevent and reduce violence against women and girls in public spaces. The Child-Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) - launched by UNICEF and the UN-Habitat in 1996 - is the first multi-stakeholder partnership to put children at the centre of the urban agenda. The CFCI has generated some of the most effective models for involving children in the governance and development of their communities.
Mainstream approaches to development often view all children in urban areas as a homogeneous group and use statistical aggregates to determine resource allocation and programming actions. An equity-focused approach is needed to direct solutions precisely to those children who are hardest to reach. 'Chapter 5: Uniting for children in an urban world' explores five key areas in which action is required if the needs and rights of nearly half of the world's children, residing in urban areas - are to be fulfilled. These are: (i) understanding the scale and nature of urban poverty and exclusion; (ii) identifying and removing the barriers to inclusion; (iii) putting children first within a broader pursuit of equity in urban planning, infrastructure development, governance and service delivery; (iv) promoting partnerships between the urban poor and their governments; and (v) ensuring that everyone works together to achieve results for children.
Every disadvantaged or underprivileged child bears witness to a moral offence: the failure to secure his or her rights to survive, thrive and participate in society. And every excluded or marginalised child represents a missed opportunity - because when society fails to extend to urban children the services and protection that would enable them to develop as productive and creative individuals, it deprives them of the social, cultural and economic contributions they could have made. Clearly, children's rights cannot be fulfilled and protected unless governments, donors and international organisations look behind the broad averages of development statistics and address the urban poverty and inequality that characterise the lives of so many children. This well-documented UNICEF publication titled Children in an Urban World urges taking necessary actions to reach all children in need, wherever they live, wherever they are excluded and left behind, for building sustainable cities and communities for all people.
The writer is an
independent researcher.
[email protected]

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Children in an Urban WorldPublished by UNICEF, ISBN 978-92-806-4597-2 156 pages