Background
Air pollution is a global health challenge, but what is often overlooked is the particular vulnerability of children to air pollution and the harmful effects it can have on a child’s health and wellbeing.
Air pollution impacts neurodevelopment and cognitive ability and can trigger asthma, and childhood cancer. Children who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution may be at greater risk for chronic illness such as cardiovascular disease later in life. Living in cramped, smoke-filled and poorly ventilated homes, often located close to busy roads, factories and garbage dumps, urban poor children are the most exposed and hence at the most risk.
This event
Improving urban air quality for children is a panel discussion which aims to bring attention to sources of air pollution for urban children and its impact on them, and look at some tangible solutions which have been developed within cities/communities.
The objectives of the webinar include:
- Raising awareness of the different sources of air pollution that affect air quality in urban areas
- Initiating wider discussion on the impact of air pollution on children in developing regions
- Discussing successful strategies by presenting concrete ideas that can inspire action
Discussion topic
What can you do about air pollution?
Moderator
- Sarah West
Key author of the evidence into action brief Urban Air Pollution and Children in Low and Middle-Income Countries
Panelists
- Loreto Stambuk, Director, Horizonte Ciudadano Foundation
Key contributor: Aires Nuevos-data-driven advocacy and action to reduce children’s exposure to harmful air pollution levels in Latin America. - Richard Gevers, Founder and CEO, Open Cities Lab.
Open Cities Lab: A civic technology lab with a focus on the development of open data for application urban challenges operating within cities in Africa. - Khishigjargal Batjantsan, Programme Officer, UNICEF Mongolia.
Key collaborator: Air quality monitoring and assessment of children’s exposure to air pollution in Mongolian urban areas.
This event contributes to the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies.
Cities4Children
Cities4Children is an interdisciplinary Global Alliance of over 25 organizations working together to ensure that child rights are firmly embedded in the urban agenda.
This is the first of Cities4Children’s new series of Dialogues 4 Action events: open-to-all interactive webinars on practical interventions and strategies that make cities better for children. It is aimed at practitioners, policy makers, government officials, researchers and advocates and aims to inspire action, add to knowledge and advocate for children’s and young people’s rights in the urban agenda.
