Anupama Nallari and Sarah Sabry at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children , January 13, 2026, 9 min
Digital apps enable residents to assess and improve the safety and inclusivity of public spaces. Turning citizen feedback into data-driven action helps cities create safer, more equitable places for children and caregivers. As cities around the world embrace smart technologies, there’s a growing opportunity to make urban spaces more inclusive, especially for children and youth. Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, August 12, 2025, 7 min
Many cities overlook teenagers in urban planning, leaving them without safe, welcoming places to gather, connect, and be themselves. From Cairo to Cuenca, examples show how co-creating teen-friendly public spaces can boost safety, inclusion, and well-being while making cities more vibrant for everyone. Does your city have spaces for teens to spend time with their Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children and Aline Rahbany @ World Vision International, June 18, 2025, 9 min
As cities and towns become home to growing numbers of refugee and displaced children, local governments face urgent challenges to build inclusive, child-friendly urban spaces. This blog describes practical examples from Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Arsal, Lebanon, where municipalities and communities collaborate to improve public spaces and services for both host and refugee or Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, March 18, 2025, 8 min
Mapping with children is a powerful tool to understand their perspectives on their neighbourhoods, identify safety concerns, and highlight opportunities for improvement. This blog explores five innovative ways to map neighbourhoods with children, from creating child-friendly city maps to using drones for waste management and even mapping imaginary cities. What is mapping? Mapping tells a Read more →
Sree Kumar Kumaraswamy, Madhura Kulkarni and Chaitali Patil, July 9, 2024, 9 min
This blog describes how the innovative Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge (NNC) is promoting healthy early childhood development across 10 cities in India. It outlines seven key urban governance strategies for working with city governments that can strengthen the planning and management of cities to create inclusive and child-friendly spaces for young children and their caregivers. With Read more →
Yichen Wang, June 3, 2024, 6 min
It’s World Bicycle Day and time to celebrate pedal power! BYCS is expanding its Bicycle Mayor Network to foster more cycling-friendly cities worldwide. In this blog, Yichen Wang describes inspiring initiatives led by Bicycle Mayors worldwide, promoting cycling and inclusive public spaces. Why cycling? Cycling is one of the most inclusive, sustainable, and affordable modes Read more →
Anupama Nallari and Sarah Sabry at the urban Hub @ Save the Children, April 9, 2024, 7 min
The third blog in our ‘Public Space for Children’ series provides an overview of UN-Habitat’s ongoing 12-year Global Public Space Programme (GPSP) with a focus on interventions, tools and guidance that make public spaces better for children. In case you missed them, the first blog of the series spotlights public space interventions by our member Read more →
Tim Gill, February 20, 2024, 9 min
With growing worldwide interest in making cities more child-friendly, what approaches can municipalities take? Tim Gill sets out three models for local governments and explores the pros and cons of each. Child-friendly urban planning and design means taking children’s needs and wishes seriously when building or changing neighbourhoods, especially their public realm. Drawing on ideas Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, January 24, 2024, 6 min
Are you an activist, built-environment practitioner, caregiver, or city official, who wants to improve your city or neighbourhood for children? It’s a new year – how about starting it off by doing a course on making cities safer, cleaner and greener for children. In this article we feature three online open access courses that introduce Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, December 4, 2023, 8 min
Public spaces are crucial for children’s holistic development and wellbeing. Our new blog series showcases how public spaces can be made better for children. Using global examples from Cities4Children members and other initiatives, our aim is to spotlight ideas for action, innovation, programmes, policies and practice that make public spaces child friendly. Why are public Read more →
Tim Gill, March 21, 2023, 9 min
My last post argued that municipal champions have a crucial role in making neighbourhoods more child-friendly. This post gives four examples of how civil society agencies, alliances and partnerships – especially those at national, regional and local levels – can build momentum and action. It draws on over a quarter of a century of personal Read more →
Cecilia Vaca Jones, January 10, 2023, 10 min
In our latest Ask an Expert Series blog, we speak with Cecilia Vaca Jones. Cecilia has over 20 years of experience leading public and private-sector organisations to promote and enable child-responsive policies and programmes at national and global levels. In this interview, Cecilia shares her insights on leading the Bernard van Leer Foundation from 2019 Read more →
