Kutaisi to join Child-Friendly Cities Initiative, signs memorandum of cooperation with UNICEF
The memorandum defines specific actions that should be implemented in order for Kutaisi to be included in the list of the child-friendly cities. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Kutaisi City Hall and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have signed a memorandum of cooperation, by which Kutaisi will join the Child-Friendly Cities Initiative.
The memorandum defines specific actions that should be implemented in order for Kutaisi to be included in the list of the child-friendly cities.
We are glad that Kutaisi joins the Child-Friendly Cities Initiative by signing MoC w/ UNICEF. The MoC will be followed by action plan to gain a "child-friendly" status.
— UNICEF Georgia (@unicefgeorgia) September 30, 2020
CFCI is a local government system, where the needs and rights of children are part of policy & decision making. pic.twitter.com/EwBxL0gjSz
The Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) is a UNICEF-led initiative that supports municipal governments in realizing the rights of children at the local level using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as its foundation,” says the UNICEF website.
The memorandum was signed by Acting Mayor of Kutaisi Davit Eremeishvili and UNICEF Representative in Georgia Ghassan Khalil.
Under this memorandum, we have a responsibility to uphold the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” said Eremeishvili.
Congratulation to Kutaisi on decision to join UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Cities Initiative. Glad children will become part of policy & decision-making. UNICEF is glad to support Kutaisi to become child-friendly. pic.twitter.com/FiSGassJWz
— Ghassan Khalil (@GKUNICEF) September 30, 2020
Over 3,000 cities of more than 40 countries are involved in this initiative.
The initiative was launched in 1996 by UNICEF and the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat).
A center for psychological and social services for children who have been victims of violence will be created in Georgia and will serve children living in the capital city of Tbilisi and the country's third largest city of Kutaisi.
The overall human capital index score of Georgia is 0.57, which means that a child born in Georgia is expected to grow up to be only 57 percent as productive as they could be if they enjoyed a complete education and full health, says the latest update of the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), which measures pre-pandemic human capital outcomes around the world.
As Georgia begins to ease lockdown, reopening of schools needs to be prioritised, says UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund) Georgia in an official statement. The statement reads that the longer children stay out of school, the more exposed they are to various risks.
A total of 29,800 children in Georgia do not have proper conditions to even wash their hands with soap and water at home, says UNICEF, which added that children living in families where there is a lack of proper conditions and sanitary facilities are especially vulnerable to the rapid spread of the coronavirus.