Programme

France

Villes Amies des Enfants

The origins

The Child Friendly Cities (CFC) initiative was launched in 2002 in partnership with the Association of French Mayors. The aim was to raise local leaders’s awareness of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it could improve the lives of children at the local level.

The initiative started with 12 cities and the adaptation of the initial framework of the CFCI to the competencies of French local authorities. After its first year of existence and the establishment of a common base through the creation of the Child Friendly Cities Charter, the initiative in France took a new step in 2003 with new memberships and the development of major axes:

The establishment of an application file,
The strengthening of the communication strategy around the Child Friendly City so that the operation is known by as many people as possible.

The application process for cities quickly became more demanding and was strengthened by the involvement of the volunteer network in this process. The volunteers helped to disseminate information about the initiative, encouraged cities to apply and supported them in their involvement in the CFC network.

The 2020/2026 municipal mandate

Based on the new international Child Friendly Cities Initiative model, the Child Friendly City approach has been redesigned for the 2020/2026 municipal mandate.

Between 2020 and 2021, more than 400 municipalities or inter-municipalities have expressed their willingness to improve their child and youth policy in order to advance the effectiveness of children's rights on their territory.

The candidate cities have therefore drawn up a municipal action plan for children and young people and have chosen to implement at least one action per commitment among the 13 recommendations of UNICEF France.

In order to design and implement this action plan, cross-cutting action within the community is essential. Becoming a child-friendly city involves the entire municipal council, the agents of the community, the educational actors of the territory, the inhabitants and of course the children and young people themselves. The local authorities have worked for weeks to develop and refine their project, through an ambitious municipal action plan. This result reflects their willingness to commit to UNICEF for a better application of children's rights in their territories.

UNICEF France took the time to advise them throughout the application process by proposing, encouraging and discussing the commitments and recommendations that are the strength of this Child Friendly City programme. The application files of the cities were examined and each of them was interviewed by the "Local Authorities" commission composed of volunteers and employees.

UNICEF now helps its partner to make strong commitments to the well-being, fight against exclusion, education and participation of every child and young person. The application process is evolving, as is the support, and no less than 299 local authorities have joined the network between 2020 and 2022 for this new 6-year municipal mandate.

Support from UNICEF France

UNICEF France provides support for the implementation of all the recommendations chosen by the cities throughout the mandate through specific working groups, expert documents and methodology. The achievement of the objectives is measured during and at the end of the mandate in order to guarantee sustainable results at the territorial level.

Child-friendly cities are regularly invited to increase their skills through UNICEF trainings. They are also invited to participate to digital thematic workshops and to the network's territorial and national meetings. Finally, they must monitor and evaluate their action plans in order to measure the impact of their projects on the children in their territories.