Child-Friendly City Higher Level Certification Promotion… Research Service Final Report Meeting Held

Seongnam City announced that it held a final report meeting for research services at the Tancheon Hall in City Hall on August 22nd to promote the higher level certification of child-friendly cities. At this report meeting, the results of the standard survey and citizen opinion collection for policy decisions conducted by Seongnam City in the process of creating a child-friendly city in its fourth year were announced. Based on this, Seongnam City plans to submit an application for higher level certification to the UNICEF Korea Committee in December.

[Korean Today] Final report meeting on research service for child-friendly city upper level certification held at Tancheon Hall of City Hall on the 21st © Reporter Na-yeon Kim

Seongnam City is a child-friendly city designated by UNICEF, and is currently pursuing higher-level certification for the fourth year. To this end, Seongnam City held a final report meeting on research services at 10 a.m. on August 22nd at Tancheon Hall in the City Hall, attended by Seongnam Vice Mayor Lee Jin-chan and 10 members of the Child-Friendly City Promotion Committee. This report meeting was held to secure key policy decision data for the development of child-friendly cities and to reflect citizens’ opinions.

At the report meeting, the Seongnam City Government Research Institute announced the results of a standard survey on child-friendly awareness and public opinion collected over the past seven months. The standard survey was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire targeting children, guardians, and children-related individuals to assess the level of awareness of six child-friendly areas. According to the survey of 1,695 people, children gave the highest evaluation to the health and welfare area with 4.21 points out of 5, and the participation and respect area received the lowest evaluation with 3.92 points.

For guardians, home life received the highest score at 3.94 points, followed by health and welfare (3.91 points), educational environment (3.84 points), play and culture (3.62 points), participation and respect (3.57 points), and safety and protection (3.53 points).

In the process of collecting public opinion, the main opinions presented included financial support for participation in play program activities, creating an environment where people can enjoy play and culture without time constraints, and expanding the publicity of news related to children. In addition, the need to create an atmosphere where the entire community can change together through cooperation with the Office of Education, external professional organizations, civil society groups, and citizens including children was emphasized.

[Korean Today] Commemorative photo of the final report meeting for the research service for the upper level certification of child-friendly cities © Reporter Na-yeon Kim

Based on the results of this research service, Seongnam City plans to conduct additional services from September to December to establish a 4-year (2025-2029) strategy for creating a child-friendly city. Through this series of processes, Seongnam City will finalize a vision and specific business plan for creating a child-friendly city at a higher level, and based on this, will submit an application for higher-level certification to the Korean Committee for UNICEF.

UNICEF Child-Friendly Cities is a system that certifies cities that faithfully implement child-friendly policies, guaranteeing children’s rights to survival, protection, development, and participation in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The certification period is four years, and in order to receive the next level of certification, evaluations are required in five areas, including child participation, rights education, and the creation of child-friendly spaces.