Let children plan neighborhoods for a sustainable future: a sustainable child-friendly city approach

ABSTRACT

Currently, many children live in extreme poverty and high-risk neighbourhoods, who are among the most vulnerable group in society. However, they are the link between the past and future generations. Accordingly, planning for neighbourhood sustainability as the first public place for interactive experiences of children, inside the framework of a child-friendly city (CFC) approach, could provide an opportunity for all children to meet their desires. The paper aims to create sustainable neighbourhoods through the participation of children. This study is applied research that was conducted through the qualitative and quantitative methods based on secondary data, library-documentary and fieldwork. Moreover, participatory approaches such as painting, pictorial questionnaire and interviews with 141 children, aged 10–14 years on their favourite spaces, activities, and vehicles have been used by means of cluster random sampling method. The results indicated that home, playing with others, and cycling are most favoured by the children regarding the sustainability indicators in the neighbourhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Child-friendly cities
• sustainable urban development
• youth participation
• sustainable indicators
• children’s rights

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).