A Child Friendly City is a local system of good governance
committed to fulfilling children's rights
Philippines
Child Friendly Cities
In the Philippines, the Child Friendly City Initiative has been promoted by the Child Friendly Movement (CFM), a nation-wide inter-sectoral partnership, involving a wide range of actors including communities, confessions, local and national governments and the private sector. The CFM’s goal is to enhance child wellbeing through policy implementation at the local level. The CFC Initiative builds on a long history of urban interventions, starting in 1992 with the Mayors as Defenders of Children initiative and the League of Cities of the Philippines Declaration of Commitment to Children in 1993. These contributed to the strengthening of the major urban program ‘Towards Making Cities Child-Friendly’. This program was launched in 1999 and covered 20 provinces and five cities. UNICEF’s country program has supported the movement and local authorities since the early days.
The parameters for the CFC Initiative are based on the Philippine National Strategic Framework for Plan Development for Children, formulated by the Council for the Welfare of Children, which contains a total of 24 goals in the areas of survival, development, protection and participation. Local administrations are encouraged to implement action programs to achieve progress towards the fulfillment of these goals. Furthermore, cities and barangays (villages) that wish to become ‘child friendly’ need to ensure four ‘gifts’ to children. These constitute:
- A Local Development Plan;
- An Investment Plan;
- A Children’s Code;
- A State of the Children Report.
A Presidential Award is granted to those administrations (both cities and communities of different sizes) that have promoted the four gifts and have performed well in terms of the 24 goals. The main objective of the program is the institutionalization of a child-friendly environment and governance in promoting and protecting children’s rights. It furthermore encourages Local Government Units (LGUs) to prioritize children’s rights and it monitors and evaluates the implementation of programs and services for children. LGUs have been supported to establish local databases for monitoring.
The evaluation method of the Award-program contains a screening of the entry form by a jury through either a Municipal / City Evaluation Tool or a Barangay Evaluation Tool. After having conducted interviews and site visits, a final evaluation and selection by the jury is made. The screening takes place on different levels. The entry form will be screened by a Provincial Technical Working Group, followed by the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children, the National Awards Committee and the National Screening Board. Awards are given to three categories: highly urbanized city, 1st-3rd Class Municipality and Component City and 4th-6th class Municipality. Prices include a regional seal/trophy and a cash price.
Contact: Grace Agcaoili
E-mail: gagcaoili@unicef.org
