Children and Youth

The objectives of the Stakeholders Roundtable are to:
•tIdentify and discuss specific urban issues that are critical to young people living in cities;
• Explore the challenges faced by children and youth to be fully and meaningfully engaged in the Urban SDGs and the New Urban Agenda;
• Amplify the voices and roles of young women and girls, their solutions in strengthening sustainable urbanization as well as inclusion of marginalized communities; and
• Create an intergenerational dialogue between young people and adults regarding urban issues and their hopes for inclusion to ensure Cities for all.

The Ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9) to be hosted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, promotes the theme Cities for all. This conference will build on the successes of the previous WUF events and Habitat III. The New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals included a strong focus on inclusion and a “leave no one behind” mandate, with children and youth as change agents of society and contributors to effective sustainable development.

Children and youth are the future of the city. As an official event of WUF9, the Stakeholders Roundtable on Children and Youth provides a global platform for young people and their advocates to articulate emerging urban issues and innovative solutions impacting their lives and communities. As a gathering of diverse organizations and groups representing children and youth, the Roundtable offers a platform to strengthen constructive dialogues and partnership with children and youth as key stakeholders in implementing the New Urban Agenda.

The Roundtable will bring together experts to explore the urban challenges faced by children and youth, with emphasis on child focused and youth-led solutions to those issues. There will be special focus given to young women and girls as well as other marginalized communities such as indigenous peoples, the LGBTQ community, and young people living in slums and informal settlements. The goal of the roundtable will be to develop recommendations which can be incorporated into the final children and youth statement of the Forum.

Q1: What are the particular challenges/issues that children and youth face in cities?

Q2: How can local governments ensure and actively engage children and youth in the development of city policies and its future; What does it mean to have child focused and youth-led policies?

Q3: What are the formal mechanisms available for young people to engage in city planning and governance in their cities. What are the proposals to strengthen existing mechanisms or implement new ones so as to guarantee institutional spaces for young people’s engagement?

Q4: What is the role of young women in sustainable urbanization?

Q5: What is the role of marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples, the LGBTQ community?