Building Cities and Neighbourhoods for Children and All Ages

Background

The OECD report Cities for All Ages, supported by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism of Japan, aims to promote key policy actions to create more age-inclusive cities. The share of older people in OECD cities is rising fast, while many large cities continue to grow and attract young people. Without age-inclusive policies, cities face significant social and economic consequences, ranging from poorer health outcomes and higher isolation to workforce loss, increased public spending, and brain drain. The Cities for All Ages report explores how local and national governments can address these challenges and make cities work for all generations. It highlights strategies such as adapting urban design and land use planning for more accessible cities, providing age-friendly housing, and engaging both young and older people in labour and consumer markets. To drive progress, the report offers a checklist of nine policy actions across three key areas – strategy setting, resource development and stakeholder co-ordination – to help local and national governments shape cities for all ages.

The project Building Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods, supported by the Van Leer Foundation, elaborated an OECD-wide monitoring framework, which lays out the neighbourhood elements that matter for children’s well-being and development, and maps available cross-national indicators. The identified neighbourhood elements encompass aspects of the built environment, communities’ social relationships, and children’s access to basic services such as schools and health services. An OECD-wide monitoring of children’s neighbourhood conditions can support local and national policy makers in building child-friendly neighbourhoods and in attenuating geographical disparities by facilitating resource allocation, collaboration across sectors and levels of government, and cross-country learning with respect to effective policy tools. The project also summarises practical considerations for national and local policy makers and other stakeholders involved in data-driven efforts to improve children’s neighbourhoods. It highlights how locally adapted policy solutions hold greater promise to mitigate the locational disadvantage that some children experience. Moreover, it emphasises the need for more rigorous implementation and evaluations to increase policies’ effectiveness and gain a more complete understanding of the potential of place-based policies to build stronger neighbourhoods for children.

Format of the Meeting

The webinar will be held virtually over Zoom. To participate, please register here. The link with log-in details will be sent to all registered participants. The meeting will be recorded and made publicly available.

Language

The meeting will be held in English.

Agenda