Local Environmental Initiatives Oriented to Children and Youth

A Review of UN-Habitat Best Practices

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of the objectives and methods of a selection of child- and youth-oriented environmental initiatives around the world. Its goal is to review how local communities and municipalities are working to create physical environments that support the rights and priorities of children. To this end, we use a child-friendly city framework in an examination of 101 "good," "best" and "award winning" practices identified by UN-Habitat. We supplement these data with responses to a self-administered questionnaire, sent to a subset of the cases in the UN database. We provide profiles of several practices which promise to offer valuable insights into the dynamics of community-based practices that are oriented to the needs of children and which suggest directions for research to further guide such practices.