“Even very young children, if properly channeled and given the elements to do it have power to give their opinions”
In the second phase of Equity for Children’s Approaches to Equity study focused on urban environments, we conducted a series of interviews with practitioners, experts and urban planners. This interview features Enrique Delamonica, Chief of Social Policy and Gender Equality, UNICEF Nigeria.
Interview Highlights
- When discussing inequities affecting children it is crucial to focus on the “lifecycle” of the child to distinguish and address the challenges children face at different ages, and the environmental and urban issues they need help with overcoming.
- There is no age group that is more
affected than others by urban inequities, each age group suffers in some way and has its own distinct challenges and concerns. - Numerous approaches to reducing child inequities in cities have been applied. Evaluation studies do not highlight any particular ones as right or wrong. However, it is necessary to adopt a more systematic approach so that initiatives and results can be compared meaningfully and can be applicable across different international contexts.
- NGOs are helpful in policy dialogue and collaboration as well as urban studies, however, an important factor is political will, and that is difficult to come by.
Read the full interview transcript here.
Enrique Delamonica is an economist and political scientist. He attended the University of Buenos Aires, Columbia University, and the New School for Social Research, New York. Since the early 1990’s he has worked as a consultant for UNICEF and UNDP and a policy analyst at UNICEF headquarters, focusing on the impact of macroeconomic policies on children, poverty-reduction strategies, financing of social services and budget allocations, the analysis of trends in socioeconomic disparities, child poverty measurement, and social protection policies.
His books include “Eliminating Human Poverty – Macroeconomic & Social Policies for Equitable Growth” (CROP International Studies in Poverty Research, Zed Books, with Santosh Mehrotra).
