The Child Friendly Urban Planning (CFUP) project is a unique and pioneering project that focus on children and youth participating and expressing opinion
in the decision-making process of child friendly urban planning city.
Sharjah Child Friendly Office (SCFO) launched the CFUP project in 2017 with strategic partners Sharjah Urban Planning Council (SUPC)...
Sharjah Planning Principles Guidance for Child Friendly Open Public Spaces, which is designed for Sharjah based on the infrastructure and action plan of the city that has been crowned as the first city in the world to be..
View MoreOur aim is to ensure voices of children, youth and community members are heard during the planning and designing of the public spaces. The urban planning ensures a healthy, safe, inclusive green and prosperous environment by:
Sharjah is well known for preserving and protecting children’s
rights by providing attractive playing environments for them in line with their physical,
social, emotional and behavioral development, that puts the city on top of the list.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 1989) that stipulates: The right of
the child to rest and leisure,
The Sharjah Executive Council has issued the 'Sharjah Planning Principles Guidance for Child-Friendly Open Public Spaces' during its weekly meeting spearheaded by His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of the Sharjah Executive Council.
SCFO launched “Sharjah Principles for Child Friendly Open Public Spaces” in collaboration with Strategic partners Sharjah Urban Planning Council (SUPC), UNICEF and UN Habitat at Expo 2020.
The launch was coinciding with the World Cities Day which is observed globally on 31st October to raise awareness on sustainable urbanization. The launch of the Sharjah Principles reflects the emirate’s firm commitment to human-centric, sustainable and inclusive development.
In January, 45 engineering students from the University of Sharjah participated in a city-wide assessment of the open public spaces within Sharjah City. These youth were trained by international experts from UN Habitat to assess the open public spaces based on global standards.
This group of surveyors were assigned and equipped with key maps that enabled them to assess around 230 open public space around Sharjah using the latest methodologies.
A delegation and a group of children from Sharjah participated at the World Urban Forum (WUF10) in Abu Dhabi in February. A workshop was conducted to present this unique project in engaging children on participatory urban design including two children with disabilities in a special discussion panel to present their experiences and to express their ideas in an innovative way using Minecraft methodology. This methodology facilitated them to communicate with their peers easily to design the park to make it accessible, safe and inclusion of all children with non-discrimination.
Participated at the Biennial of Public Spaces in Rome, Italy in May and presented Sharjah's experience in CFUP project and learned more about international best practices.
The first urban planning lab was launched in April in collaboration with SUPC, UN-Habitat and UNICEF using “Block by Block - Minecraft” methodology with a participation of 48 children, including children with disabilities. Following this methodology, children were able to develop more than 40 ideas into semi-tangible reality with an outcome of 15 final park designs incorporating their needs and outlook as a child-responsive urban planning city.
An exploratory walk with 50 children of different ages and nationalities was conducted in September following Block-By-Block workshop. This was held in Muwaileh area using questionnaires and surveys to identify children needs in terms of safety, security, accessibility and inclusion and to find solutions for problems related to the green public space.
SCFO in collaboration with SUPC presented the CFUP project experience at the first Child Friendly Cities Summit in Cologne – Germany in October.
In November 2017 CFUP project started by conducting a closed brainstorming session with 20 children and youth from Sharjah schools and Sharjah Humanitarian City (a school for disabled Children & youth) at Sharjah International Book Fair in cooperation with the SUPC and UNICEF. The session discussed their needs in designing and planning the city through their lenses. In addition, an open workshop was conducted with more than 2000 children, who participated in drawing and planning the city on the sideline of the Book Fair.
The office continued the consultation sessions with experts and entities working in the field of urban planning, town planning and survey, real estate development companies and consultants to promote the basics and standards for child-responsive urban planning.
