Poland

The Miasto Przyjazne Dzieciom (Child Friendly City) initiative in Poland was launched in September 2017 in the city of Gdynia, a city located on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The overall aim of the initiative in Poland is to engage all of society in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and to encourage and enable children and youth to become actively involved in their cities.

The initiative has three pillars. The first is to strengthen local municipal governance for children. This includes implementing a child-friendly legal framework; assessing the situation of children; developing an Action Plan for Children; setting up a coordinating mechanism in local government to ensure priority is given to children’s issues; and assessing the impact of law, policy and practice on children. Priority areas include early childhood development, education, health, children with disabilities, child protection, poverty, migrant children, culture, and sport.

The second pillar is to raise awareness of and promote child rights among adults and children. This includes listening to children’s views and taking them into consideration when decisions are made on issues that affect them. The key role is played by taking actions to strengthen the existing tools of children’s participation in the city and creating conditions for the implementation of new solutions. It is particularly encouraged to support local Youth Councils, the possibility for young people to submit ideas within the framework of the local budget and promoting mechanisms of direct participation.

The third pillar is to use strategic partnerships to engage all members of society in building a child-friendly environment. This entails building broad platforms for cooperation between the media, civil society, and private sector.

Since launch of Miasto Przyjazne Dzieciom initiative, it has grown to include collaboration with 13 cities that vary in size, population, and financial capacity.

In each city, the initiative will be reviewed every two years.