Friendly is not enough! was a founding premise of the new working group of the ICLD titled Child-Focused Cities that gathered experts working with children and youth across the globe during the Local Democracy Academy 2022 in Visby, Sweden.
By critically examining the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) we have discovered a huge lack of space and “focus” for children and youth in cities. While the widely spread “friendly” discourse around the position of children in our contemporary urban environments offers opportunity, we have developed a more focused analytical framework, building up on SDGs, for both evaluation and action towards enabling the political formation of children and youth. Informed by critical empirical evidence we have conceptualised a navigational tool that could provide protocols and practical solutions for professionals, local decision-makers and communities to be more informed when acting on behalf of this politically disabled group.
