Urban Safety

Urban Hub Team at Save the Children International, March 8, 2024, 8 min

What can you do to make cities places where girls and young women feel safe, valued, comfortable, empowered and experience equitable access to the city? Read our 2nd blog in the Public Space for Children blog series to learn more. In case you missed it, the first blog of the series spotlights public space interventions Read more ā†’

Cities4Children, June 13, 2023, 9 min

In dense, unplanned, and disadvantaged urban areas like slums and informal settlements, safe places and facilities where children can come together to learn, play, and access resources can be crucial for their health, development and wellbeing. In this blog, we share three types of facilities that deliver much-needed integrated services for children, young people and Read more ā†’

Cities4Children, May 9, 2023, 5 min

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 5 to 29 years. One of the most effective strategies to reduce road traffic crashes is to reduce speed limits to 30 km per hour or lower in areas where vulnerable road users Read more ā†’

Cities4Children, February 7, 2023, 7 min

The Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) collaborates with local community groups to transform underutilized risk-prone spaces in Kibera into a resilient and productive network of public spaces. This network of public spaces – comprising toilets, multipurpose halls, micro-enterprises, laundry facilities, play spaces, vegetable gardens, and schools – builds physical, social and economic resilience in informal communities Read more ā†’

Richard Clarke, September 28, 2022, 10 min

ā€˜Nothing seems to change until suddenly it does,ā€™ writes Duncan Green in his book How Change Happens. The exponential growth of school streetsĀ over the past five years powerfully illustrates how urban change can sometimes be non-linear and transformational. What are school streets? School streets are vehicle-free areas outside schools (or vehicles have severely restricted access). Read more ā†’

Kunal Kumar, Rushda Majeed, and Sree Kumar Kumaraswamy, September 13, 2022, 6 min

Child-centric urban planning is about more than just building playgrounds. Here, Kunal Kumar, Rushda Majeed and Sree Kumar Kumaraswamy outline four ways to make neighbourhoods better for very young children, from creating dedicated spaces for play to improving early childhood care centres. The 10 winning cities of the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge were announced by the Read more ā†’

Cities4Children, August 16, 2022, 8 min

What are Open Streets? Why are they important for children, vulnerable groups and cities? What are the key ingredients that make Open Streets successful in cities? On 19 April 2022, Gil PeƱalosa hosted an online webinar called Open Streets/CiclovĆ­as: Meeting as Equals ā€“ Public Health Benefits where he and Dr. Olga L. Sarmiento addressed some Read more ā†’

RĆ”chel SurĆ”nyi & NoĆ©mi SzabĆ³ (Mobilissimus), May 17, 2022, 6 min

An EU project has operated around different European neighbourhoods in an attempt to improve mobility, specifically for children and those with reduced or different mobility needs. Here,Ā Mobilissimus, in Hungary shares more information about the project, and in particular the changes that have taken place in Budapest. What is the EU-funded SUNRISE (Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods Research Read more ā†’

Rohit Tak and Lekshmy Hirandas, April 5, 2022, 6 min

A good measure of how child-friendly a city is, is how well children can independently play, connect socially, and access schools. After numerous waves of Covid-19, parents across India and the rest of the world,Ā remainĀ concerned about letting their children ride public transport and school buses. This behaviour change can accelerate motor-vehicle dependency for school-related commutes Read more ā†’

Cities4Children , February 1, 2022, 5 min

Growing up in a city full of cars can be damaging, and not just physically. It gives the impression that cities with cars are unchangeable, and will always be there. Even among childrenā€™s toys, cars are given greater dominance than bikes. Take Lego, for example. Until this year, after a successful campaign started by urban Read more ā†’

Cities4Children , January 25, 2022, 8 min

We may see a house as just that: a shelter and a space to call home. But what if that house is inadequate? If the house canā€™t be kept clean or it’s situated along a polluted, dusty road? What if itā€™s not safe, and even when they close the door, its residents canā€™t relax? What Read more ā†’

Cities4Children, December 14, 2021, 4 min

The results from a recent survey designed to engage young people as primary stakeholders in improving safety in their cities are striking. 82 percent of young people aged 15-24 who took part said they could ā€˜never access safe public transportā€™, while 69 percent said they ā€˜never felt safe from harassmentā€™ in public spaces. The results Read more ā†’