Healthy Cities for Adolescents

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Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) is Fondation Botnar’s unique initiative focused on adolescents in cities.

Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) is a global programme supporting young people to thrive in urban environments. We bring together local governments, civil society, youth groups, and global partners to co-create healthier, safer, and more inclusive cities for adolescents. The programme is supported by the Fondation Botnar and managed by Ecorys. HCA operates in six countries — Colombia, Ecuador, India, Ghana, Senegal and Vietnam — funding projects that intend to improve lives of adolescents in intermediary cities. Each project aims to create lasting solutions through partnerships with various stakeholders at the city level.

21/09/2026

Having adolescents in the room does not necessarily mean they are participating. 👐

Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation offers a useful way to think 🔎 about the different roles young people can have – from manipulation, decoration and tokenism to being informed and consulted, sharing decisions with adults, and initiating and leading action themselves.

🗣️One of the key distinctions is influence. At the lower levels, young people may be visible but have little choice over what they do or how they participate. Higher up the ladder, they understand their role, their views inform decisions, and they increasingly share or take the lead in decision-making.

Across Healthy Cities for Adolescents, we aim to create opportunities for adolescents to move beyond simply being present or consulted – and to have a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that affect their lives and cities.

💭 Where would you place adolescent participation in your work?

Based on Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation, adapted from Roger Hart (1992), Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship.

16/09/2026

🇮🇳 ‼️ A major milestone for youth participation in urban governance in : a youth-led climate framework developed through HCA has been adopted by the Indore Municipal Corporation!

Behind the ACT Indore Framework are 8 months of work by 50 young people across Indore. They conducted the city’s first youth-led ward-level survey, documented community stories, ran 10 community campaigns and worked directly with ward councillors and the Indore Municipal Corporation on water, waste and heat.

At the Indore Climate League National Convening, the fellows took the lead, bringing what they had learned from communities into discussions with city officials, partner organisations and academic institutions.

🍀 The convening also saw the launch of the , which brings their experiences and ideas together into a youth-led approach to strengthening climate resilience and youth participation in urban governance.

For HCA, this is an important example of what meaningful youth participation can achieve. Young people were not simply invited to contribute their views – they gathered evidence, worked with communities, engaged directly with decision-makers and helped shape an approach that the city can now take forward. 👏

The Indore Climate League was led by Youth Ki Awaaz in collaboration with SHEDO Sansthan, AAs- 'Aim for the Awareness of Society', Startup India and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), with support from Healthy Cities for Adolescents under the 'ACT Indore: Adolescents for Transformation' project (https://healthy-cities.org/projects/act-indore-adolescents-for-climate-transformation/).

🔗 Read more: https://healthy-cities.org/major-milestone-for-youth-participation-as-indore-moves-to-adopt-youth-led-climate-framework/

Fondation Botnar |

14/09/2026

🌍 | 🇸🇳 Senegal Spotlight

Sometimes, change begins with something very simple: a young person speaking up for the first time.

Across Thiès, Pikine and Tivaouane, and are giving adolescents the confidence to share their ideas, discuss the challenges they face and engage directly with parents, teachers and local leaders.

More than 5,000 adolescents and young people have already taken part through the Fort Pour Le Futur project. For many, the experience has been transformative.

These conversations are helping normalise discussions around topics that are often difficult to address – from mental wellbeing and road safety to sexual and reproductive health and participation in local decision-making.

Read the full story: https://healthy-cities.org/giving-young-people-the-floor-how-youth-talks-and-theatre-forums-are-opening-new-conversations-in-senegal/

10/09/2026

💪✨A first for -II: a learning exchange between Ghana and India has led to two projects adapting and testing each other's approaches in their own cities!

What began as a knowledge exchange in 2025 has now evolved into practical implementation in both countries.

🇮🇳 In Bhubaneswar, India, the model developed in Ghana has been adapted to strengthen existing youth engagement mechanisms. More than 750 adolescents from 113 communities participated in identifying local priorities, with young people presenting their recommendations directly to city leaders.

🇬🇭 In Ghana, the Resilient Cities for Adolescents project is now piloting elements of India's Public Spaces Assessment Framework ( ), introducing a structured approach that helps adolescents assess public spaces, generate evidence and strengthen their advocacy with data.

This collaboration demonstrates that cross-country learning can be much more than sharing experiences. It can create new approaches, strengthen existing ones and help successful ideas travel across contexts.

🔗 Read the full story: https://healthy-cities.org/ghana-india-exchange-marks-first-cross-country-adaptation-of-approaches-within-hca-ii/

07/09/2026

What if everything you think about adolescent participation is wrong?

Too often, participation is reduced to consultations, youth panels or one-off events. But meaningful participation looks very different.

❌ We've unpacked four of the most common myths – and the facts that every city, programme and decision-maker should know.

💬 Which myth have you encountered most often?

Fondation Botnar| Despacio | Node Eight | Vivo Mi Calle | LAB XXI | Sama yoon sama kaddu | Global Media Foundation | WRI India | Youth Ki Awaaz | Fort Pour Le Futur | Young and Safe Ho |

20/08/2026

💡 | What can cities learn from Da Nang’s Children’s Council? 🇻🇳

Many cities ask adolescents what they think. Far fewer create systems that ensure those ideas influence real decisions.

Da Nang’s Children’s Council in Vietnam shows that meaningful adolescent participation is not about a single consultation or event. It is about building a process that connects young people with decision-makers – and following through.

📌 Three lessons from Da Nang:

✅ Participation needs a structure, not just opportunities.
The Council operates from commune to city level, creating regular channels for adolescents to engage directly with decision-makers.

✅ Listening is only the first step.
Every recommendation is documented, discussed and followed up, helping build trust and accountability.

✅ Young people should shape solutions, not just identify problems.
From safer public spaces to mental health initiatives and digital safety campaigns, adolescents are helping influence real policies and programmes.

🎥 Watch the video from Da Nang in the our Learning Library: https://healthy-cities.org/library-item/summary-video-of-the-childrens-council-model/

🔷 Explore the impact story: https://healthy-cities.org/adolescents-voices-leaders-actions-how-da-nangs-childrens-council-is-changing-the-way-cities-listen/

UNICEF Viet Nam - Quỹ Nhi Đồng Liên Hợp Quốc | Fondation Botnar

17/08/2026

Every story of change starts with the person who experienced it.

In this short video, David Zomayi from Ghana 🇬🇭 reflects on what changed in his life due to the Young and Safe project through the Participatory Video + Most Significant Change ( ) approach.

PVMSC combines participatory video with storytelling to help adolescents identify the changes that matter most to them and explain why those changes are significant. Rather than relying only on traditional indicators, the approach puts young people's own experiences and perspectives at the centre of understanding impact.

🗣️David's story is one example of how listening to adolescents can deepen our understanding of what meaningful change really looks like.

🎥 Watch his story 👇

Young and Safe Ho | Fondation Botnar

12/08/2026

🌎This ’s themes highlight the power of cooperation and partnership building in ensuring young people can shape and participate meaningfully in sustainable urban futures.

🤝 At Healthy Cities for Adolescents, we align closely with this message and demonstrate how partnerships which are most effective in tackling the challenges shared by youth across our programme are those that recognise young people as equal partners.

🏢 Across our programme, adolescents are working alongside city governments, community leaders and practitioners to shape healthier, safer and more inclusive cities. They are creating student parliaments, co-designing public spaces, engaging directly with municipal and national decision-makers to influence planning, and bringing their solutions to global conversations.

🌐This year, our collaborations have expanded, developing international coalitions. HCA projects in Ghana and Ecuador are partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to contribute adolescent-led solutions to flagship initiatives advancing Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11. During our in Accra, adolescents explored urban challenges and proposed ideas for adolescent-friendly cities of the future, directly with representatives from WHO, UNICEF, international NGOs and government leaders, demonstrating what meaningful youth participation looks like in practice.

💡The following stories capture HCA partnerships in action, showcasing how young people and institutions are listening, learning and creating solutions together.

Read more: https://healthy-cities.org/international-youth-day-2026-young-people-are-building-partnerships-that-shape-healthier-cities/

Fondation Botnar | Despacio | Node Eight | Vivo Mi Calle | LAB XXI | Sama yoon sama kaddu | Global Media Foundationn | WRI India | Youth Ki Awaaz | Fort Pour Le Futur | Young and Safe Ho

03/08/2026

🌍 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam Spotlight

In Da Nang, partners across the (HCA-II) programme came together to validate a new Situation Analysis that will help shape future investments and programming for young people in the city's rapidly changing urban context.

Commissioned by UNICEF and supported through HCA-II, the analysis provides the first comprehensive evidence base on the lives of adolescents and young people in the newly expanded Da Nang – examining health and wellbeing, education, employment, digital inclusion, participation and the broader ecosystem of organisations working with young people.

The workshop also highlighted the power of collaboration, bringing together local authorities, UNICEF, UN-Habitat, Live & Learn International, AIP Foundation, Fondation Botnar and other partners to strengthen coordination and identify opportunities for greater collective impact.

Beyond the workshop, Fondation Botnar representatives met with adolescents leading initiatives in environmental action, sustainable tourism, heritage conservation and civic participation – demonstrating that young people are not only shaping their communities today but also helping define healthier, greener and more inclusive cities for tomorrow.

Read the full story: https://healthy-cities.org/hca-partners-in-vietnam-validate-situation-analysis-to-shape-the-future-of-adolescent-programming/

27/07/2026

| Senegal Highlights 🇸🇳

A new chapter for adolescent leadership is taking shape in Senegal.

As part of the Fort Pour Le Futur project under the Healthy Cities for Adolescents programme, peer educators in Pikine, Thiès and Tivaouane have established their own associations – creating a lasting platform for youth-led action beyond individual project activities. 👏

These newly formed associations provide young people with a formal structure to coordinate initiatives, strengthen collaboration and increase their visibility within local communities.

More importantly, they help ensure that adolescents continue to play an active role in promoting health, education and wellbeing among their peers. 👦 🧒

For years, peer educators have been leading conversations, sharing knowledge and supporting young people across their communities. Today, they are taking the next step: building organisations that can sustain this work and amplify adolescent voices for years to come!

Réseau Jeunesse, Population et Développement du Sénégal (RESOPOPDEV) | Fondation Botnar

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