Safe and Sound Cities

Behind every green space, every clean beach, every thriving neighbourhood, there is a young person who decided to act. 🌏

As the climate crisis grows, so does the power of local action. From transforming vacant lots into community gardens in Envigado, to creating green hubs for communities and their pets in Baguio, to restoring coastal ecosystems in Cartagena, young people in the S²Cities Programme are showing the world what youth-led action truly looks like. They identified the problems in their own communities and built solutions, for their neighbours, for nature, and for the generations that come after them.

This , we celebrate every young person who chose to act. 🌱

Are you a young person leading an initiative that's improving the environment in your city? We want to hear from you, tell us below!👇

🎉 S²Cities will be at the African Youth SDGs Summit in Accra, Ghana this year!

🌍 The African Youth SDGs Summit is Africa’s largest youth forum focused on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. It brings together young leaders, development experts, governments, UN representatives, non-profits, and private sector actors to lead change and development in the continent.

💡 With S²Cities’ recent expansion to Africa through the addition of two new cities — Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi, the Summit offers an important opportunity to strengthen regional partnerships and engage in conversations on youth participation in urban decision-making and advocacy.

🤝 The programme also looks forward to connecting with members of its Global Learning Network, while building new collaborations and exchanging ideas with change-makers working towards safer, more inclusive, and resilient cities across Africa and beyond.

Stay tuned for updates and highlights from the Summit! 💜🌱



African Youth SDGs Summit

✨ Our spotlight series continues, as we showcase contributions from the special issue of The Journal of Public Space ()—capturing insights from two years of collective research, learning, and youth-led action across our global programme.

Spotlighted this time: “Urban and Youth Transformations in Envigado: Connection with Oneself, Others, and the Environment.”

In this article, María D. Moreno Álvarez from our local partner Fundación Mi Sangre presents a qualitative methodology to explore the S²Cities programme’s development and impact in Envigado, Colombia.

The methodology in this study is structured across three interconnected levels: individual, relational, and structural. The results highlight how empowering young people as active agents of change enables them to influence not only their immediate environment, but also broader governance structures while promoting more inclusive and participatory urban spaces.

💡This paper offers valuable insights for urban planners, designers, and policymakers that may be interested in the effects and advantages of local youth-led movements, and participation in urban change and governance, with properties that can be replicated and scaled around the globe.

📖 Read the paper: https://www.journalpublicspace.org/index.php/jps/article/view/1856 [Link in Bio]

Stay tuned as we continue to feature each contribution from this special issue.

✨We’re here with another feature in our spotlight series showcasing contributions from the special issue of The Journal of Public Space ()—capturing insights from two years of collective research, learning, and youth-led action across our global programme.

Spotlighted this time: “From Local Voices to Global Impact: Crafting MEL for Youth-Led Placemaking in Cross-Country Programmes.”

In this article, Juan Carlos Muñoz Mora, Estefany Peña Rojas, and Andrés Felipe Sanchez Saldarriaga from our global MEL partner discuss an adaptive MEL framework, drawing from the S2Cities programme.

The study highlights the necessity of real-time adaptation to local youth experiences, the need to balance standardized evaluation with localized indicators, and the critical role of young people as co-creators in MEL processes, underscoring the importance of a flexible yet rigorous framework that captures urban dynamics’ evolving nature.

💡This paper offers valuable insights for urban planners, designers, and policymakers that may be interested in the development of MEL frameworks and processes with flexibility and provisions for youth participation, with properties that can be replicated and scaled around the globe.

📖 Read the paper: https://www.journalpublicspace.org/index.php/jps/article/view/1854 [Link in Bio]

Stay tuned as we continue to feature each contribution from this special issue.