Commentary
A clear direction, a renewed identity
How can Fondation Botnar contribute to lasting change in young people’s lives?
Healthy Cities for Adolescents
Initiative
With Healthy Cities for Adolescents, young people shape healthier, more responsive cities as equal partners in decisions affecting their lives.
Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) works with young people in intermediary cities across four countries to strengthen the systems that affect their health and opportunities. It recognises young people as rights-holders and equal partners in shaping their cities. HCA-supported projects bring together diverse groups of adolescents with city governments and other stakeholders, creating opportunities for young people to take action and contribute to planning and policy on issues ranging from mental health and education to public spaces and climate change.
- Partners
- Ecorys
- Working in
- Ecuador, Ghana, Senegal, Vietnam
- Approach
- Grants to local consortia, policy advocacy and shared learning
- Focus
- Adolescent health and wellbeing in fast-growing intermediary cities
- Launched
- 2019
Challenge
Young people should have a say in the cities they call home
Intermediary cities are growing rapidly, bringing both opportunities and challenges for the young people who live in them. Decisions about mental health, sexual and reproductive health, education, employability, public spaces and climate change have a direct impact on their everyday lives, yet young people are often underrepresented in urban decision-making. HCA recognises young people as rights-holders and important contributors to addressing these challenges. By creating opportunities for diverse youth voices to contribute to planning and policy, cities can better reflect young people’s perspectives and priorities.
HCA’s first phase helped create a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) accountability tool, connecting local youth participation with policy advocacy.
Approach
Strengthening youth participation through advocacy, learning and local action
HCA provides grants to test, scale and implement projects that actively involve young people. In its current phase, the focus is on consolidating results, strengthening policy advocacy and supporting the longer-term sustainability of successful approaches. In each city, multi-stakeholder consortia bring together local organisations, city authorities and other actors, with young people participating in project design, implementation and decision-making. HCA also connects projects across countries to share learning and strengthen advocacy for the inclusion of young people in planning and policy.
