Across Europe, cities play a vital role in safeguarding and promoting children’s rights, particularly for vulnerable groups. To support this vital work, it is essential that cities are equipped with the necessary capacities, including the ability to collect and analyse data, design policies and access resources, so they can effectively contribute to the success of the European Child Guarantee. Collaboration between local, national and EU levels of government is also key to achieving the guarantee’s goals.
Moreover, cities are recognised for their ability to innovate and adapt quickly to local conditions, ensuring that interventions are tailored to the specific needs of their populations. Through partnerships with organisations like UNICEF, Eurocities works for all children to have equal access to essential services, including healthcare, education, and social support.
In an interview with UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Octavian Bivol, we explore the local implementation of these efforts, the significance of capacity-building, and how cities are adapting to children’s needs in evolving contexts.
What is the role of cities in implementing the EU Child Guarantee?
Thank you very much for inviting me. First, it’s really an important area of our cooperation with Eurocities because cities and local authorities play a central role in translating any policy into local action. We’ve seen this through our joint efforts in assisting the implementation of the European Child Guarantee, which is a systemic approach to addressing inequities between different groups of children in accessing a continuum of social services necessary for their well-being and fulfilling their rights. Local authorities are the closest to addressing these inequities and strengthening services. They can bring together various sectors together, like health, education, and social protection, and make them work together to provide that continuum of services stipulated by the Child Guarantee. Third, they can innovate, because they can be agile and are able to adapt quickly to local conditions. We’ve learned a lot in this journey from interacting with municipalities alongside Eurocities.
Cities across Europe need support to guarantee children’s rights. How would you value the power of capacity-building for cities to be able to guarantee these children’s rights?
Capacity is central, both from the point of view of understanding where disparities or inequities are and what the drivers are. That’s why there needs to be a capacity for gathering and analysing data, translating it into appropriate policies, and, once those policies aligned with the European Child Guarantee are designed, knowing how to access resources, implement them, and monitor progress. Building capacity around this continuum is really essential to advancing the policy’s implementation.
UNICEF and Eurocities have been partnering for a couple of years. How does this collaboration contribute to implementing the EU Child Guarantee?
Our partnership has been particularly active recently, especially in the context of local authorities’ solidarity, expanded in receiving children from Ukraine. The partnership with Eurocities has been central in supporting local authorities to extend the continuum of services to children and their close ones arriving from Ukraine. As the war continues, there’s a need to move into medium- and long-term solutions, and we know that migrant and refugee children are one of the groups prioritised by the European Child Guarantee. More broadly, our collaboration with Eurocities has been instrumental in supporting the capacity-building you mentioned earlier. It provides the best experience and knowledge and offers technical assistance to local authorities, helping them design local plans and guiding them in implementation, including raising awareness about various funding sources that could support these plans.
As the EU Child Guarantee advances, UNICEF’s collaboration with Eurocities became a valuable tool in building the capacity of local authorities, supporting them in designing and implementing local plans to address child poverty and exclusion. By equipping local authorities with resources, expertise and technical support, this partnership addresses inequalities and improves access to services for all children, including refugees and migrants.
Through innovation and capacity-building, cities across Europe are progressing towards a more inclusive environment that prioritises the rights and well-being of every child.
