The State of Children in Asian Cities

Southasiadisasters.net issue no. 141, January 2016: We know so little about the risks our children face in our cities! This issue addresses this gap to help better make Asian Regional Plan for implementation of SFDRR in Asian cities. This issue is also a first step to inform the upcoming UN Habitat III Conference on ‘Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development’, Quito, Ecuador, in October 17-20, 2016. This issue explores the extent of children's vulnerability and resilience to such risks in several Asian cities. Specific institutional arrangements, programmes and projects that aim to promote children's welfare in these cities are examined. The COP21 has rightly recognized many cities to be indispensable partners to achieving climate justice. Since climate change also enhances the risk profile of children, this issue also explores the theme of child centered climate change adaptation. The Asian cities highlighted in this issue include: Dhaka, Kathmandu, Mumbai, Phnom Penh, Thimphu, and Yangon. This issue's contents includes: (i) Children and Youth are Agents of Change; (ii) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Dhaka; (iii) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Yangon; (iv) Understanding of Disaster and Development; (v) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Thimphu; (vi) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Phnom Penh; (vii) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Mumbai – The Case of NGO Schools in Mumbai; (viii) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Kathmandu; (ix) Urban Resilience and Children's Rights in Northeast India; (x) Turning Disaster into Development: Community Learning Centers — A Way to Recover from Disasters; (xi) An Ecologist View of Challenges in Restoring Coastal Habitats; (xii) Household Water Filter Evaluation What Works?; and (xiii) Urban Political Ecology and the Social Production of Urban Coastal Flooding. This issue highlights the critical everyday connections that link local processes with the SFDRR implementation in Asia. The authors hope that this issue will help World Humanitarian Summit focus more directly on children and their protection in cities from humanitarian crises.