UN launches development index for urban children in order to measure key development indicators for children living in cities.
Middle East Online
RABAT – The United Nations on Friday launched an initiative to measure key development indicators for children living in cities at an international conference in Morocco.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF formally launched the Index of Urban Child Development, or UKID, at the fourth United Cities and Local Governments congress being held in Rabat.
UKID will be published every year starting in 2014, allowing city governments around the world to better understand the needs of children and strengthen their quality of life, UNICEF Director of Policy and Strategy Jeffrey O’Malley said.
The UN development agency already publishes the human development index, which ranks countries according to their performance on income, health and education.
UKID will have a longer list of indicators, including levels of security and pollution that children in cities are exposed to, as well as access to health, education and public transport.
“Right now, more than 50 percent of the world’s children live in cities,” O’Malley said, adding that in 20 years the figure would rise to 70 percent.
“Cities overall, even in rich countries, often lack data on their own population… and something that almost every country in the world is struggling with now is growing inequality,” he added.
The UKID data will be gathered by UNICEF staff based in some 180 countries.
