Location: Urban and Regional Research Center, University of Indonesia, at Jalan Salemba, Indonesia

Time: 13 September 2019, Friday, 9:00-11:00

Format and concept 

Based on the recently published UNICEF Handbook on child-responsive urban planning, UNICEF proposes to organise a 120-minute training session.

The training session has the following format:

• Seminar on basic concepts and tools on child-responsive urban planning. This seminar provides concepts, evidence and technical strategies to bring children to the foreground of urban planning. By focusing on children, this module provides guidance on the central role that people-centred planning should play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from a global perspective to a local context, by creating thriving and equitable cities where children live in healthy, safe, inclusive, green and prosperous communities.
• Workshop with breakout session. Supported with a checklist on Children's Rights and Urban Planning Principles, all participants will develop a set of strategic actions and viable policy recommendations for all urban planning stakeholder on short and long term, towards the creation of child-responsive urban settings.

The aimed outcome of the training session is:

• To provide the participant urban planners with the knowledge and the technical tools on the why, what and how to put children central in their daily practice;
• To clarify that child-responsive urban planning builds upon the strengths of sustainable urban development, supports the broader New Urban Agenda and intersects with existing discourses and practices for healthy, safe, cohesive, climate resilient and prosperous cities;
• To support participants to feel inspired and comforted after the workshop to lead on this topic in their professional environment, by training further their staff, by proposing innovative approaches to their clients and partners, by elaborating guidance and policies on a city or national level.

In dialogue with ISOCARP and the Indonesian Association for City and Regional Planners (IAP), this training can also be the start of a certified professional training program for child-responsive urban planners.

UNICEF training on child-responsive urban planning

Acknowledging all urban challenges, do you also wonder why and how an urban planner should focus on children? Supported by UNICEF's recent publication 'Shaping urbanization for children, a handbook on child-responsive urban planning', this short training session will present you concepts, evidence, technical strategies and tools to bring children to the foreground of urban planning. By focusing on children, we will discuss in a workshop format the central role that urban planning should play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from a global perspective to a local context, by creating thriving and equitable cities where children live in healthy, safe, inclusive, green and prosperous communities.

Background

Planning and designing a city to better meet the needs of children and the people who care for them is one of the best investments a city can make. Analysis of the main urban contexts shows that urbanization does not necessarily induce sustainable urban environments for children. Children and their families, especially the most disadvantaged, are confronted with spatial inequity in multiple ways: the high cost of living and access to urban services; the unequal geo-spatial distribution to urban services; the poor characteristics of the built environment; and the inequitable spatial distribution of land and urban space.

An unsustainable built environment constraints children's access to urban services in a physical way, due to unequal distribution, ineffective planning and lack of quality in design and construction. It leads to urban-specific environmental health problems that health support systems cannot address alone and shifts the focus from communicable to non-communicable diseases. The built environment also reveals itself as a protection issue when children and their caretakers cannot evaluate risks, be prepared or be safe. Finally, the built environment also influences to what extend children's participation is possible, in terms of public space where children can congregate and other infrastructure that allows physical, social and digital connectivity. On the positive side, the built environment offers realms of opportunity where cities commit to the respect of children's rights and planning for equity.

Due to the strong correlation between the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged children and the built environment, the organising partners set up this training for urban planning stakeholders, to give guidance on how to prioritize children in urban planning and thereby ensure cities thrive as homes for healthy, safe, green and prosperous communities.

Short Bio trainer: 

Jens Aerts is a senior urban planner with 20 years of experience, working on the cross-section of practice, policy and research. Most recently he has been working as an international consultant for the Habitat III secretariat, UNICEF HQ and the World Bank. He authored UNICEF's recent publication 'Shaping urbanization for children, a handbook on child-responsive urban planning' and currently supports the agency as a member of the Urban Task Team in the development and implementation of its Global Urban Strategy, including training and technical assistance in regional and country offices. He is also committed to similar advisory work that bridges people's well-being and sustainable urban development, such as the Urban 95 Program (Bernard van Leer Foundation) and the Street for Kids program (Global Designing Cities Initiative). 

Previously Jens assisted both Governments of the Flemish and Brussels Region in Belgium to build urban planning capacity in public agencies and to direct community led neighborhood plans, sustainable mobility programs and key public space interventions.

Jens is currently affiliated with the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). He holds a MSc in Civil Engineering and Architecture from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and obtained his MA Urban Planning at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona (Spain). He is member of the Board of the Flemish Spatial Planning Organisation (VRP). He is also active member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), as rapporteur of the Urban Planning Advisory Team workshop 'Historic and Cultural Corridors' in Guangzhou (2018) and member of the congress team for the '55th ISOCARP World Planning Congress, Jakarta-Bogor, Indonesia.