Shenzhen has proposed 55 specific projects in 12 categories in its renewed commitment to building a child-friendly city during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to a five-year action plan recently released by the city’s working committee on women and children.

The city will push forward the construction of child-friendly subdistricts, communities, schools, preschool education facilities, hospitals, libraries, parks, travel systems, practice bases and baby care rooms, the plan said.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen will pilot and promote the construction of child-friendly urban villages, build child-friendly towns, and vigorously expand child-friendly service centers and activity platforms.

By 2025, the city will strive to achieve the goal of turning all its communities child-friendly, build hundreds of child-friendly schools, kindergartens, parks and practice bases, and build more child-friendly hospitals (community health centers) and libraries.

Shenzhen also plans to build characteristic sports-themed parks and children’s sports parks, build more community sports parks with children’s sports facilities, and provide children with free entry or preferential rates to stadiums and gymnasiums.

Shenzhen will implement the country’s newly enacted three-child policy and advocate a fertility-friendly society, according to the plan.

The city will make comprehensive plans to build infant and child care service facilities, encourage kindergartens and child care centers to set up child care classes, support employers to provide infant care services for employees, and promote inclusive child care institutions and the construction and management of baby care rooms.

The plan aims at having all communities in Shenzhen own infant and child care service institutions by 2025.

Under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Shenzhen officially proposed in 2016 to be China’s first child-friendly city.

The city has since rolled out a spate of measures spearheading the construction of a child-friendly city, which includes the release of the country’s first guidelines in both Chinese and English for building child-friendly communities, schools, libraries, hospitals, parks, travel systems and baby care rooms.

In 2020, the Baihua child-friendly block in Futian District, which is the city’s first child-friendly block, received a thumbs-up from a mission of 22 foreign diplomats and U.N. representatives for its explorations in creating a welcoming environment for children.

Launched by UNICEF and U.N.-Habitat in 1996, the Child Friendly Cities Initiative supports cities, towns, communities or any local government systems in realizing children’s rights.