Other partnerships

Partnerships have been established with several UNICEF Field Offices and National Committees for UNICEF. In particular, regular assistance is being provided to UNICEF National Committees engaged in promoting Child Friendly Cities. A workshop involving 11 European UNICEF National Committees, UNICEF New York, UNICEF Brussels and UNICEF Geneva was organized at UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence in July 2003 with the objective of sharing information among European CFC experiences and orienting National Committees on the theory and practice of the global CFC initiative. The meeting agreed on mobilising a joint European Child Friendly Cities Initiative.

Collaboration has been continued with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK. A monographic issue on "Building Better Cities with Children and Youth" was published in October 2002 by IIED in collaboration with UNICEF IRC's Secretariat for Child Friendly Cities and UNICEF New York.

Collaboration has been established with Rädda Barnen, Save the Children, Sweden in developing a conceptual and action framework regarding child rights and the physical environment. With support by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), data provided by the CFC Secretariat and other sources is being reviewed to identify key principles and practices defining child-friendly physical environments.

An international conference on "Child Rights and Good Urban Governance" was organised in collaboration with the City of Florence in February 2003. The meeting, which gathered UNICEF, international experts, policy makers and children, offered an opportunity to promote CFC and strengthen new partnerships.

Two research projects on Child Friendly Cities have been carried out in the Philippines and in Italy in collaboration with the Ateneo de Manila University, UNICEF Philippines and UNICEF New York, and the Universities of Urbino and Modena respectively.

UNICEF participation in the World Urban Forum 2004, Barcelona, 13-17 Sept 2004

- UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre's International Secretariat for Child Friendly Cities participated in the launch of the Urban Millennium Partnership-Localising MDGs initiative (14 September.) The CFC Framework for Action was presented, along with the experience of the Spanish child friendly city of Getafe shared by Carmen Duque, Counsellor of Education, and facilitated by UNICEF Spanish Committee. The CFC Initiative, it was emphasised, provides a practical example of how the Millennium Development Goals can be localised, with mayors and local governance systems committing to fulfil major goals for young people.

- UNICEF Jerusalem, together with representatives of Palestinian cities, shared the experience of the CFC programme and children's councils in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) at the session on "Young People's Participation in Community Development and Governance" (17 September.) María Burgues, Counsellor for Childhood and Ombudswoman for Children and Adolescents Rights in Lleida, Spain, shared the experience of her child friendly city. Representatives from the French National Committee participated in the session.