Children in Cities: Researching with Children in Four Kazakh Cities to Support Child Friendliness Recognition: Final Kazakhstan Report 2015

Kazakhstan became a member of the United Nations on the 2nd March in 1992 and signed the convention on the rights of the child in 1994. The UNICEF Child friendly cities initiative started in 2006 in the Republic of Kazakhstan as the means for creating an environment where cities would begin to value the importance of implementing strategies that addressed the rights of the child. The UNICEF country office in Kazakhstan acts as a central technical advisory body to the National government and in the promotion and implementation of the CFCI. The Child Rights Protection Committee was set up in 2006 through the Ministry of Education and reports directly to the Minister. They are the main national advocates for Child Friendly Cities. The Kazakhstan Children in Cities, child friendly cities research project was implemented throughout 2014. Funded by UNICEF Kazakhstan it was a child friendly participatory research program engaging 177 children in research about their lives in the cities where they are living. The four cities where children were living included. The study was conducted in four cities of Astana, Semey, Kyzylorda and Aktau, with approximately 40 children from each city being involved. The aim of the study was to build capacity in order to create opportunities for children to be involved in collecting data about their lives in many neighbourhoods around the city. These four cities had identified they would like to develop local capacity in order to conduct research with children to compliment their national UNICEF child friendly cities recognition process. The concept of a child friendly city is not based on an ideal end state or standard model rather it is a framework with the goal of creating a city and community wide commitment to addressing the needs of children, investing in their future and creating policies and strategies to achieve this. Central to achieving this goal is the need to develop baseline data with children about lives in the city, that is, to understand how to best provide for children by identifying the gaps, issues and challenges. The study was conducted in the city with the support of local adult mentors working alongside the children who took on the role as the co-researchers. These mentors, who included local teachers, UNICEF staff, local government staff and university students, were provided with training on the child friendly cities initiative and child focused participatory research. The research methods the children used to collect their city wide data included photography, drawing, guided tours, surveys and interviews. The research was conducted with children as part of their school program with the support of the school Principals and staff.