The Ministry of Federal Affairs & Local Development (MoFALD), UNICEF Nepal and Child Friendly Asia Pacific Network are jointly organizing the 3rd International Conference on Child Friendly Cities (CFC) on 27-29 June at Kathmandu.

The South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), the SAARC Apex for child protection related issues, is also supporting the local organizers which include Nepal School of Social Work, Kadambari Memorial College of Science and Management, and Nepal College of Development Studies and ENGAGE.

The three-day conferences titled “Child Rights Approach to Governance, Equity, Inclusion and Sustainability for Children in the Asia Pacific” will bring together international scholars, researchers, development workers, policy makers, local body representatives, council officials, children and agencies working for children and participants from 17 countries.

It will offer a forum for discussion and action for creating child friendly cities and enhance child friendly practices in the Asia Pacific region and in Nepal. The event will also offer a platform to share best practices on child friendly related policies and issues.

The expected outcome of this historic event is a joint declaration by the Government of Nepal and partners on the launching of the global child friendly city index and on child friendly local governance.

The four themes for this conference are Child Friendly Local Governance; Child Protection Accreditation and Monitoring; Child Friendly Learning Framework; and Child Health, Well-Being and Sustainability.

The themes for the different workshops are Child Participation Techniques; Child Governance and Planning; and Innovative Child Centered Pedagogy.

This year’s participants are from the following 18 countries: Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherland, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Spain and Thailand.

This international conference is a follow up to the Second UN Conference on Human Settlement (Habitat II) which declared that “the wellbeing of children is the ultimate indicator of a healthy habitat, a democratic society and good governance.”

The 1st International CFC conference was held in Tokyo, Japan in 2009 and the 2nd International CFC conference was held in Solo Surakarta, Indonesia in 2011.

The National Strategy on Child Friendly Local Governance led by the Ministry of Federal Affairs & Local Development (MoFALD) with the technical support from UNICEF, Royal Norwegian Embassy and other partners, was approved by the Government of Nepal in 2011.