The Child Friendly Cities Initiative has been active in rallying registered interest in New Zealand since 2006, and the UNICEF New Zealand National Committee (UNICEF NZ) has been successful in registering interest from a variety of municipalities, including New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, its largest city, Auckland, and two district council partnerships to embed the initiative regionwide.

A steering group was formed in 2015 to develop New Zealand’s CFCI recognition process. New Zealand will adopt a two-stage recognition process with 12 benchmarks that municipalities will be audited on – seven to achieve stage one, and all 12 to achieve full stage two recognition.

Upon committing staff and funding resources within their Councils, cities and regions will be provided with training and consultation in order to coordinate their local steering group and embark on their journey towards recognition. UNICEF NZ will conduct training and consultation through quarterly webinars and at least one face-to-face visit on request or when necessary. UNICEF NZ also provides U-report and Map Your World as recommended child and youth engagement tools for strategic planning, feedback and reporting.

Once fully recognized, municipalities will be expected to continue reporting every two or three years in order to keep the recognition. UNICEF NZ will rely on U-report and webinars with the local steering group in order to review municipalities and ensure they keep up their responsibility to the UNICEF brand.