Child-friendly Cities For Everyone

“If a city is designed for children, it will work for women, the elderly, and everyone else.”

This profound concept served as the central theme of the third Urban Bootcamp, organised by the Cities 4 Women (C4W) project in Nepal. As our valleys and plains rapidly urbanise, the bootcamp provided a much-needed platform for architects, urban planners, and local leaders to share practical approaches to designing child-friendly, inclusive, and climate-resilient public spaces. The event started with the mayor of Sunwal Municipality, Bimala Aryal, talking about how Sunwal became a "Child-friendly Municipality".

The Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare awarded Sunwal with the designation after it completed the minimum index of child-friendly governance related to child protection, child development, child participation, child survival and organisational development. The municipality became successful in achieving the title as it had strictly carried out works by formulating a code of conduct to complete the minimum index determined by the Child-Friendly Local Governance Implementation Work Procedure as per the Child-Friendly Local Governance National Strategy-2068 BS.

Working with children 

“When a municipality invests in children, they will grow up and do well in the country and around the world,” the mayor said. Following that, the Urban Planner, Prabal Dahal at UN-Habitat, presented on the importance of designing with children. “By 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s children will live in cities; therefore, they should be the focus because they will be the ones living in the cities,” he highlighted.

The presentation on SDG localisation emphasised the need for working with children rather than for them. And that collaborative approach can only be achieved through empathy and inclusivity.  For example, Imukhel Children’s Park, an initiative supported by UNICEF, delivered a multi-functional space that serves as a playground, a performance area, and even a safe haven during emergencies by directly consulting with children, older adults, and persons with disabilities.

Similarly, Anupama Nalleri of Save the Children International challenged the "one-size-fits-all" mentality that often plagues city planning and advocated for a nuanced approach to public spaces. Children of different ages interact with public spaces differently. A toddler's needs might not match those of a teenager. Recognising that a toddler's need for safety is fundamentally different from an adolescent's need for freedom allows urban designers to move beyond generic playgrounds towards a more inclusive civic fabric.

Ultimately, designing for the specific developmental needs of childhood ensures that cities do more than house children; they help them grow into healthy, connected adults. Following through with regional experiences, Professor Bharat Dahiya of Thammasat University in Thailand, reflected on the challenges of building child-friendly cities in the Asia-Pacific region.

To ground the discussion in everyday experience, he shared a conversation he had with his 14-year-old daughter before leaving for the conference. He had asked her a simple question: “What makes a city good?" "More plants and trees," she answered, emphasising that children learn best about nature by experiencing it directly rather than only through textbooks. She also highlighted the importance of smooth, accessible sidewalks, safe bike lanes, and cities that feel secure from crime.

The response reminded the audience that listening to children often reveals the most fundamental qualities of a livable city. Several Nepali practitioners also echoed this message by sharing their work. Niharika Mathema from Digo Bikas Institute presented on “Placemaking through Play,” emphasising that the city itself should function as a public space. She explained the three stages of placemaking-place taking, place making, and place keeping and shared examples such as Car-Free Saturdays in Hadigaun, where streets temporarily transform into vibrant social spaces for play and community interaction.

She also introduced the concept of “Playbourhoods,” which aims to reactivate neighbourhood-based play through tactical urbanism, sensory walks, and heritage treasure hunts. Similarly, Ruchi Khakurel presented on the present conditions of child play areas in Kathmandu and how they can be made more child-friendly through some small interventions. Likewise, Rubin Shrestha from Cycle Society Nepal gave a brief update on the project that they are doing in various parts of the valley, which includes proposing more cycle-friendly routes in different parts of Lalitpur Municipality.

The representative from Lets Play presented on “Understanding the Complexity of Play in the Public Spaces of the Core Area of Patan, Nepal,” which was completely based on the research that they carried out in Patan. Anna Koskinen from the University of Turku, Finland, presented on “Lessons from the Field: Spain and Finland”. Likewise, Nilima Thapa Shrestha and Barsha Shrestha presented the public spaces designs that Cities 4 Women project is designing at the moment, keeping children, women and persons with disabilities in mind. 

Urban planning

Building child-friendly cities in Nepal requires prioritising children’s needs in everyday urban planning. Children's participation must be formally embedded in municipal planning through schools, child clubs, and participatory design processes, supported by dedicated budgets that endure beyond political cycles. Child-friendly principles should be integrated into local plans, street design standards, building bylaws, and public space guidelines so that every new intervention contributes to safer and more inclusive cities. 

Tactical urbanism, such as play streets, car-free days, and pop-up parks, can serve as a practical testing ground for piloting ideas, learning quickly, and scaling successful solutions. At the same time, underutilised public land should be reclaimed to expand access to safe play and social spaces, particularly in dense urban neighbourhoods. Achieving this depends on strengthened local capacity and long-term partnerships among governments, communities, civil society, and the private sector. We need to embed empathy into the way we plan, design, and build our urban infrastructure. Above all, we need to listen to children.

(Thapaliya is an architect and urban designer.)