What is a child friendly city like? Is your city a child friendly city? Recently, the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Office of the State Council Working Committee on Women and Children jointly released the "Report on the Development of China's Child Friendly Cities (2024)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The report shows that as of now, 93 cities across the country have entered the scope of national child friendly city construction, covering 31 provinces, regions and municipalities. More and more places are paying attention to formulating and implementing social policies and improving public services from the perspective of "one meter height". Why promote the construction of child friendly cities? What other areas will we focus on next? The reporter interviewed relevant officials and experts from the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission. From a development concept to a national action, where should we take our children for a weekend walk? In many cities, there are increasingly new answers to this question: Xuhui District in Shanghai has set up sports facilities such as children's climbing walls, basketball courts, and skateboard plazas along the riverside, creating themed waterfront spaces for children; Shangcheng District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province has built the city's first child friendly commercial district, integrating children's theaters, reading areas, and puzzle game areas into the mall layout, becoming a popular check-in point for local "moms"; The first "child friendly workstation" in the city has been established in the Malanshan area of Changsha, Hunan Province. The Malanshan meteorological station and water level and rainfall observation station have been built in the Malanshan Duck billed Park, along with outdoor children's play areas, sand pits, and other facilities. These cities that embody child friendly elements are now taking a joint action to build national child friendly cities. What is child friendly? Why promote the construction of child friendly cities at the national level? Look at the concept. In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child proposed that children have four major rights: the right to survival, the right to development, the right to protection, and the right to participation. A child friendly city is a city that starts from the perspective of children, is guided by their needs, provides suitable conditions, environment, and services for their growth and development, and effectively safeguards the four major rights of children. Look at reality. China is a country with a large population of children. At present, there are about 300 million children aged 0-17, accounting for about 1/5 of the total population of the country and 1/8 of the world's child population. The urgent, difficult, and anxious needs of families are particularly prominent in the field of children's public services, such as childcare. Compared to over 30% of the childcare needs of families with infants and young children, even if all childcare spaces are currently in use, they can only meet 15% of the families' childcare needs. However, the actual enrollment rate in China is only 7.86%, and the vacancy rate of childcare spaces is nearly 50%. The supply-demand contradiction in first tier cities is even more prominent. Wei Yifang, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomics, analyzed that promoting the construction of child friendly cities carries the people's expectations for a better life. In recent years, some cities have taken the lead in exploring the integration of children's priority development into the entire process of economic and social development and various aspects of urban planning, construction, and governance, achieving certain results. However, there are also problems such as insufficient coverage of the children's public service system and insufficient participation of multiple social forces. Promoting the construction of child friendly cities at the national level and comprehensively carrying out child friendly actions in all fields will help to promote the concept of child friendly to become a common consensus of the whole society and cultivate new people of the times for the construction of Chinese path to modernization. How to achieve the transformation from development concept to national action? Liu Ming, Director of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that in 2021, the construction of child friendly cities will be included in the "Outline" of the national "14th Five Year Plan". In the same year, with the approval of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission and 23 other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Child Friendly Cities" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), marking the official start of China's construction of child friendly cities. According to the opinions, by 2025, 100 pilot projects for the construction of child friendly cities will be launched nationwide to promote the deepening of child friendly concepts. Child friendly requirements will be fully reflected in social policies, public services, rights protection, growth space, development environment, and other aspects. Nearly one-third of cities at or above the prefecture level are participating in pilot projects to promote the construction of child friendly cities. How is the progress in various regions? Last year, the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission organized the release of the "Report on the Development of Child Friendly Cities in China (2023)", which was the first development report on the construction of child friendly cities in China. This year, this report will continue to be released, highlighting the latest developments in 2024 and further guiding development direction, highlighting work priorities, exchanging innovative practices, and improving promotion mechanisms based on last year. According to the report, since the first batch of 14 national child friendly cities were announced in 2022, there will be an increase of 40 and 39 cities in 2023 and 2024 respectively. A total of 93 cities have been selected, accounting for nearly one-third of the proportion of prefecture level and above cities in China. By the end of 2023, over 130 cities (including urban areas of municipalities directly under the central government) have formulated implementation plans and action plans for the construction of child friendly cities, and have put forward a comprehensive list of tasks, measures, and policies for the construction of child friendly cities; More than 90 cities have integrated child friendly concepts into their national spatial planning and various departmental special plans. Many cities have accumulated valuable experience in this process. Stick some small animal patterns on the window to make our reading room warmer. "" I hope our children's place here has more cartoon entertainment elements. "In Caohu Street, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, Yongchangjing Community has recently organized special activities such as the" Little Planner "project, DIY burgers, and children's observation group theme discussions, which have attracted many children to participate. Jin Hehui, Chairman of the Women's Federation of Yongchangjing Community, said that as a child friendly community in Suzhou, Yongchangjing Community divides nearly 1200 people aged 0 to 18 into four age groups within its jurisdiction. Based on age characteristics and development, it customizes educational and entertaining services or activities. Currently, it has focused on creating seven main scenes and 15 sub scenes, covering education, medical health, play and entertainment, cultural participation, natural ecology and many other aspects. The report released this time shows that in recent years, Suzhou has highlighted the construction of child friendly spaces, relying on the surrounding spaces of parks, kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools to carry out child friendly transformation according to local conditions. By the end of 2023, a total of 52 city level child friendly communities, 40 parks, 5 venues and blocks have been built, and 119 schools and surrounding transportation have been transformed to meet the needs of children. In addition, Shanghai has issued the "Three Year Action Plan for Promoting the Construction of Child Friendly Cities (2023-2025)" at the social policy level, proposing to build a "15 minute children's living circle"; In terms of public services, Hefei City in Anhui Province has equipped over 60 newly built kindergartens with child friendly "three piece sets" such as parent waiting areas, small playgrounds, and public toilets; Focusing on the protection of rights and interests, Zhengzhou City in Henan Province has provided rehabilitation assistance services for 13800 disabled children in the past three years, while Chengdu City in Sichuan Province has included students and children with moderate to severe disabilities in the scope of long-term care insurance coverage; Qingdao City, Shandong Province has designed and launched 10 child friendly libraries, with an annual reception of about 500000 children readers. It aims to create a public welfare picture book library that is open to children throughout the city for free, expanding the space for children's cultural participation. Peng Fuwei, Deputy Director of the Social Development Department and First level Inspector of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that in the past three years, China's construction of child friendly cities has strengthened system integration, mobilized multi-party participation, comprehensively promoted social policy friendliness, public service friendliness, rights protection friendliness, growth space friendliness, and development environment friendliness, gradually exploring and forming a path of child friendly city construction with Chinese characteristics. What challenges do parents face when walking their children with peace of mind and providing more "1-meter perspectives" in the city? At present, the construction of child friendly cities is in its infancy, and some cities have problems such as insufficient consideration of children's needs, need to improve facility quality, and inadequate supporting services Song Yan, Deputy Director of the Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu Province, said that for example, the height of some museum display boards and cabinets, as well as the design of lighting and colors in the exhibition hall, did not fully consider the needs of the children's visiting group, and targeted measures should be taken to solve them. The report also mentioned that currently, there are varying degrees of inadequate facilities, unbalanced layout, unfriendly space, and incomplete functions in the adaptation of urban public spaces to children, which affect the user experience of children and the utilization rate of facilities. Children in urban areas face varying degrees of "natural deficiency" in their growth. Some urban planning and construction have failed to pay attention to the coordinated layout and organic integration of production, life, and ecological functions. The allocation of green spaces in streets and communities is insufficient, and parks and neighborhoods lack children's recreational facilities, reducing children's opportunities to interact with nature. Peng Fuwei believes that the construction of child friendly cities should be carried out through child friendly spaces, making child friendliness more tangible and concrete. The city government can systematically and systematically promote the transformation of urban municipal parks (including community pocket parks) and roads around schools into child friendly spaces, allowing parents to enjoy a more reassuring and comfortable "walking" environment; Develop guidelines for the construction of child friendly schools, hospitals, parks, communities, and other areas based on actual conditions, ensuring unified standards and standardized construction of public space and facility planning, construction, design, and child friendly transformation; By drawing child friendly maps and other forms, connect various child friendly space resources such as parks, green spaces, museums, libraries, cultural centers, art galleries, etc. within the jurisdiction. The National Development and Reform Commission and three other departments previously formulated and issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of Child Friendly Spaces in Cities (Trial)", which proposed specific guidelines from multiple aspects such as child friendly transformation, construction of off campus activity venues and recreational facilities, including proposing that museums, music halls and other exhibition and art performance facilities should promote child friendly transformation, exhibition facilities and children's interactive equipment facilities should comply with children's behavior standards, and audience seats should be equipped with raised seat cushions; Promote the child friendly transformation of suburban parks, encourage the construction of multi-functional activity stations such as natural camping sites, and create children's play spaces that integrate with nature. According to relevant surveys, the proportion of intergenerational care for children in China is relatively high, with over 60% of infants and young children under the age of 3 in urban areas being taken care of by their grandparents. Experts believe that while adapting to the needs of children, attention should also be paid to adapting to aging, and actively exploring the spatial integration mode of "combining old and young". Encourage the comprehensive setting, composite utilization, and staggered utilization of public service facilities to meet the service needs of residents of different age groups. Wei Yifang believes that the construction of child friendly cities requires the joint participation of all sectors of society. Enterprises and institutions should be encouraged to enrich and expand the supply of inclusive public services for children, actively cultivate foundations, social organizations, and social service institutions that serve children, create a child friendly community environment, and improve the policy system that supports family development. Liu Ming stated that the construction of child friendly cities in China has moved from being a pioneer to a comprehensive promotion. In the future, more attention should be paid to normalized and long-term promotion, promoting the construction of child friendly cities from point to area and from city to township, extending the concept of child friendly cities to more cities and rural areas, and promoting the effective implementation of child friendly actions and the steady and far-reaching development of child friendly undertakings. (New Society)