Building child-friendly neighbourhoods

This paper summarises practical considerations for national and local policy makers and other stakeholders involved in place-based policy making to build child-friendly neighbourhoods. It highlights under which circumstances and how policy solutions that are tailored to the specific local context hold greater promise to mitigate the locational disadvantage that some children experience. Moreover, it emphasises the need for more rigorous policy implementation and evaluations in order to increase policies’ effectiveness and to gain a more complete understanding of the potential of place-based policies to build stronger neighbourhoods for children’s well-being and development. Both local adaptation and sound implementation and evaluation rely on the availability of local data, and the paper offers guidance to decision makers in collecting and gathering relevant data cost-efficiently. Throughout the paper, policy-relevant conclusions are illustrated by a diverse array of practical examples from across OECD countries.