Panel Sessions
Wednesday 22 November – 09.00 – 10.30
Children, Cities, and the Changing Climate: Centering the unique needs of young children in city climate change policies and strategies
Caroline Cassidy – Director, Public Engagement & Strategic Communications at Capita
Nicole Bondi – Vice-Chair, Capita Board of Directors
Young children are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which can have long-lasting consequences on their physical health, mental well-being, and social and cognitive development. A child’s earliest years are the most valuable time for development and are essential to human flourishing and thriving cities. In the Majority world, rapid urbanization and inadequate infrastructure exacerbate the challenges of climate disruption. These fast-growing urban settings present the greatest opportunity for intentional child-responsive design, especially in light of the changing climate, yet children are excluded from these critical conversations.
Join this participatory workshop, where we will explore how cities can prioritize the unique needs of young children in their climate policies and strategies. We will discuss ways cities can increase children’s and families’ participation in decision-making. Participants are encouraged to share and bring forward examples of mechanisms to mitigate the impact of climate change on children within cities and local government structures. Together we will learn about scalable and effective community-led approaches from different contexts.
Expert facilitators will guide participants through interactive and conversational exercises to help co-develop practical strategies for the well-being and resilience of children in cities. You are encouraged to share ideas and examples you’d like included in the discussion in advance by emailing ankita@capita.org.
The preliminary results of Platform C
Emily Mortier – Researcher at Ghent University
Pieter-Jan Teirlinck – Regional youth officer in the rural area Meetjesland, East-Flanders, Belgium
Hannes Vanmeenen – Programme director child-friendly city at the City of Kortrijk, Belgium
Jolijn Dehaene – Coördinator of Network Youthfriendly
This panel will discuss the preliminary results of Platform C, a EU-funded research project experimenting and analyzing how to achieve a mind and culture shift in relation to young people’s policy participation on both a local and regional level. Thisproject examines three local cases from an ecosystemic perspective, working with platform design.
In this panel discussion, we will discuss the challenges related to the policy participation of young people and the impact of platform design on these challenges. We will do so together with partners from the three local cases.
Is the 21st century is a good time to be a child?
Claire Freeman – Professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Victoria Te Herenga waka
Sarah Turner – Professor in the Department of Geography at McGill University
Helen Woolley – Professor of Landscape Architecture, Childrens’ Environments and Society
Childhood has changed enormously in recent generations. Taking a multi-generational comparative perspective while focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, we highlight key elements and challenges that support or hinder children’s wellbeing in changing city contexts. We address the following questions: What types of urban environments do we need to enable children to thrive? Are there key elements in children’s lives that need to be supported and protected irrespective of culture, location, and time? Are there ways that different cities better respond to, support, and protect what is important for their children? Our joint research in the regional cities of Wellington (NZ), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Shanghai (China) uses a range of methodological approaches, questionnaires, family focus groups, photo elicitation, and geographic Information systems.
We focus attention on children’s voices, perspectives, and responses to the changing worlds in which they live. Our 3 panel papers reveal important changes to family structures, specific shifts in socio-economic, technological, and cultural dynamics,and rapid transformations in the built environment. We highlight the things that matter the most for ensuring positive childhood experiences in cities across the Asia-Pacific region. How these can be protected, and what actions are needed on the part of governments to support these?
Shaping urban governance with youth
Jens Aerts – placemaker, Sweco Belgium
Viviana Cordero – Huasipichanga
Anaïs Maes – deputy major in charge of Urbanism and Public Spaces
Cities are places where different people, generations, communities have been living together successfully, from a social and cultural perspective. Yet, cities are challenged in their representational capacities and sense of inclusivity and livability. Although cities are young, young people’s voice is not included in decision making at district and city level.
This makes it difficult for young people to understand how cities are managed, and how change can be made. In this panel session we bring together the experiences of young people and local authorities in how they work together in making cities safe and in empowering youth to have its voice in decision making and shaping the city of tomorrow.