Finland
Lapsiystävällinen kunta
The Lapsiystävällinen kunta (Child Friendly Municipality) initiative in Finland has been active since 2012 and is led by the Finnish National Committee for UNICEF. As of beginning of 2024, 59 Finnish municipalities are participating in the initiative and 14 municipalities are recognized as child friendly.
The initiative reaches 55 per cent of children living in Finland.
The Child-Friendly Municipality initiative is a tool for municipalities to ensure the realization of child rights in the daily life of every child. The initiative helps municipalities identify the most vulnerable children and to improve their well-being. The goal is to create permanent, structural changes in local governance structures.
Finnish National Committee for UNICEF has built an extensive digital service that allows both UNICEF and the municipalities to monitor the progress of their development work.
Starting with the initiative, municipalities familiarize themselves with the rights of the child through training and materials provided by UNICEF. The municipalities then conduct a situation analysis to assess the current state of their child-friendliness. The situation analysis is based on children’s views, the initiative’s child rights indicators and existing information on children’s well-being in the municipalities. Based on the results of their assessment, the municipalities then determine the objectives and measures of their development work in an action plan. Once approved by the Finnish National Committee for UNICEF, the action plan is implemented by the municipalities. Follow-up meetings between Finnish National Committee for UNICEF and the municipalities will ensure that work proceeds in accordance with the requirements of the model.Approximately, after three years from the start of the development work, Finnish Committee for UNICEF may grant the Child-Friendly Municipality recognition to the municipality. The granting of recognition presupposes that the municipalities have focused their development work on their biggest child rights challenges, children have been involved in the development work and evaluation of results, the development work has been cross-sectoral, and the municipality has reached most of the goals they had set in their action plan. The municipality must also continue the development work after the recognition has been granted.
COUNTRY FACTS
Population: 5,566,812
Pop. under 18: 1,025,33
CONTACT
Erika TURUNEN, Senior advisor, Child-Friendly Governance, erika.turunen@unicef.fi
MILLA AALTONEN, Director of Public Partnerships, milla.aaltonen@unicef.fi
Finnish National Committee for UNICEF
Lautatarhankatu 6
00580 Helsinki
FINLAND
LINK
List of child friendly cities in Finland
21 recognized child friendly cities
- Eurajoki
- Forssa
- Hämeenlinna
- Janakkala
- Joensuu
- Jyväskylä
- Kirkkonummi
- Kokkola
- Lappeenranta
- Lempäälä
- Leppävirta
- Lohja
- Nokia
- Oulu
- Pori
- Puumala
- Riihimäki
- Rovaniemi
- Tammela
- Turku
- Vantaa
38 candidate cities
- Eurajoki
- Hamina
- Hattula
- Helsinki
- Humppila
- Imatra
- Isokyrö
- Janakkala
- Joensuu
- Kangasala
- Kauhajoki
- Kemiönsaari
- Kempele
- Keuruu
- Kotka
- Kuopio
- Kurikka
- Kärkölä
- Lapinjärvi
- Lempäälä
- Leppävirta
- Liminka
- Liperi
- Loppi
- Loviisa
- Maalahti
- Marttila
- Outokumpu
- Pedersöre
- Ranua
- Rautalampi
- Ruokolahti
- Riihimäki
- Salo
- Seinäjoki
- Sotkamo
- Tampere
- Tornio
- Tuusula
- Vaasa
- Vantaa
- Vesilahti
- Vihti
- Vöyri
- Ylöjärvi