Colombia

The Child Friendly Communities (Territorios Amigos de la Niñez -TAN) initiative is currently being developed in the municipalities of Quibdó and Cartagena through a partnership between UNICEF and various national Colombian agencies. These include: the National System for Family Well-being (Sistema Nacional de Bienestar Familiar), the Inter-Sectoral Commission for Early Childhood (Comisión Intersectorial para la Primera Infancia), the National Department for Prosperity, and FINDETER, a public development bank.

The goal of the initiative is to encourage participating municipalities to promote capacity building and governance to guarantee children rights in their jurisdictions. It aims to do this by: 1) Raising awareness about children’s rights; 2) Improving technical assistance and coordination between national and local agencies to provide services, through a gender and equity perspective; 3) Promoting and facilitating child participation; and 4) Engaging the private sector in the protection of children’s rights.

The initiative, which is currently in its design stage, is in the process of finalizing indicators to measure the communities’ improvements in three areas: children’s rights, sustainable development and governance.