Enabling children and young people to shape sustainable urban change
Geographers have shaped international policy by influencing the metadata used to monitor progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically to ensure that young people’s voices are heard, and their needs considered, in government agendas for sustainable urban change.
Issue
Researchers sought to understand the everyday lives of children and young people living in urban developments.
Action
The research team investigated the diverse ways in which children participate in community building and the importance of this for cohesion, sustainability and designing safer, better places for all. Researchers worked with UN-Habitat, Homes England, and UK local authorities to adapt research to their key challenges.
They also co-produced with Humara Bachpan a local version of ‘Map my Community’, an app to support community-based interventions in informal settlements in Delhi.
Impact
Through direct involvement with developing the metadata for Sustainable Development Goal 11.3.2 (participation of civil society), the team ensured that the views and experiences of children and young people are included in urban planning and governance across the world.
As a new Tier 2 indicator, national governments are now mandated to report on the ‘participation of women, young men and women, and/or other marginalised (i.e. young people) groups’ in urban planning and governance.
The research has led to an explicit reference to the development of child-friendly urban places in the Homes England toolkit which means that the development of over 49 new communities (350,000 homes) are now required to consider young people’s views and experiences.
Through work with Humara Bachpan, and the ‘Map My Community’ mobile app tool, the researchers were able to influence planning decisions regarding the building of new community infrastructures.
More information
Institution: University of Birmingham
Researchers: Dr. Sophie Hadfield-Hill, Professor Peter Kraftl
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How to cite
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (2023) Enabling children and young people to shape sustainable urban change. Available at https://rgs.org/enablingchildren Last accessed on: <date>