San Pedro Town is Certified as a Child Friendly Municipality
Back in 2014, the Belize Mayors Association in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development, and the National Committee for Families and Children signed on to the Child Friendly Municipality Initiative, pledging that they will develop their towns and cities to become certified as being child friendly. Up until today, three had been certified at the silver level and now San Pedro Town has joined the bunch. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
After years of work to establish a child advisory board on the island, among meeting other specific goals to incorporate child friend spaces within the town, San Pedro was today officially bestowed the silver status as a Child Friend Municipality.
Gualberto “Wally” Nunez
Gualberto “Wally” Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro Town
“This means a lot to us because we value our children here on the island. They are important to us; they are our future and we need to give them their rights as well and their voices to be heard. One of the most important things is that whenever we make decisions based on anything we do, if we are going to do sports, if we are going to involve them in community projects is to have them involved. There are some youth groups that are ready to work – to do paintings, to help in the cleanups. Those are the things that we need to start to involve the kids so that later on, they can become great leaders.”
The establishment of sustainable and child friendly municipalities is an initiative primarily funded by UNICEF Belize and is aimed at benefiting the entire community, particularly children and their rights to play and recreate in safe spaces. Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for UNICEF, Paulette Wade speaks to the goals set out in each stage, ultimately reaching platinum.
Paulette Wade
Paulette Wade, Focal Point, Sustainable & Child Friendly Initiative, UNICEF
“You have to be silver and above to receive a billboard. This certification lasts for two years so in the next two years again, the municipalities will be assess so if they don’t reach silver, then it comes down. If it goes higher then they get another billboard – gold and at maximum, platinum. Why you receive a silver award is because you have the basic structures in place. You have a unit within the council, someone that sits at the council, a councillor that will table SCFM at council meetings. You will have a coordinator that will coordinate what happens on the ground. You will also have a technical steering committee that’s made up of the ministries, the private sector, N.G.O.s, whoever is in your municipality working towards children’s agenda.”
A National Steering Committee comprising of the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development, the Belize Mayors’ Association, National Committee for Families and Children and UNICEF monitors the implementation of the initiative. Minister Oscar Requeña says that his ministry is all in with assisting all nine municipalities to achieve this child friend status. So far, only four, including San Pedro, have done so and it is a step in the right direction.
Oscar Requeña
Oscar Requeña, Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour & Local Government
“Municipalities, governments, the community must ensure that we do everything to promote the rights of our children. Every community, every municipality must ensure that it creates that space to allow our children to have a voice to be able to express themselves. It is very important that governments, and the municipal bodies, the community, look at development from the lens of a child, from the lens of children.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
