The Municipality of Prato, Italy, recognized as a Child Friendly City

The Municipality of Prato, in Italy, was recognized as a Child Friendly City on 22 February 2024. Mayor Matteo Biffoni received the certificate of recognition on behalf of the city, during an open/public session of the City council.

The recognition came at the end of a three-year path dedicated to structuring processes and mechanisms that would be useful for the Municipality of Prato to systematize child sensitive policies, based on the rights of children and adolescents as foreseen by the UN Convention.

The Child-Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) in Italy proposes shifting the focus from sectorial interventions to coordinating child-friendly policies involving all municipal departments. The proposal also aims to disseminate knowledge about international guidelines and national action plans on childhood and adolescence among administrators. This will help develop local planning which considers the strategic guidelines of the various levels of governance (national, regional and local).

The City of Prato, with the steady support of the Italian UNICEF CFCI office, has taken various steps to improve the condition of children. One of the main steps was to set up a multi-departmental coordinating body that meets regularly to develop shared policies for childhood and adolescence, in order to guarantee an holistic approach.

The coordinating body is responsible for preparing an analysis of the situation of children, based on data collection and mapping of services using the evidence-based approach.

The analysis revealed a set of indicators that identified the priorities for the municipality's shared strategy based on children's rights. This strategy was supported by dedicated child sensitive budget and embedded into the local plan.

A separate permanent body, composed of members of civil society, supported the municipality in developing the strategy and child impact assessment and evaluating whether the policy proposals will improve the well-being of children.

(Source: UNICEF Italy)