AI and Digital
Ada Health
Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA)
Creating sustainable solutions for young people living in growing cities
The Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) programme is a multi-year Fondation Botnar initiative which promotes the health and wellbeing of adolescents in intermediary cities across the global south. It does so by enabling adolescents to take action on key issues affecting them, including mental health, sexual and reproductive health, education, employability, public spaces, and climate change.
Operating in six countries, across 12 cities, HCA promotes young people as important contributors and equal partners in creating sustainable solutions for their growing cities. Projects work together with diverse groups of adolescents to enable them to be changemakers, and engage key stakeholders – particularly city governments – to promote the sustained inclusion of diverse youth voices in planning and policy decisions.
The HCA programme provides grants to support the testing, scaling, and implementation of projects that actively involve young individuals, alongside a program-wide monitoring, evaluation and learning framework. Projects are delivered by multi-stakeholder consortia that combine their diverse expertise and resources in each city and country context.
Partners
Phase I: International Society for Urban Health ISUH
Phase II: Ecorys
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Ghana
- India
- Senegal
- Vietnam
Promoting a global learning agenda
HCA was initiated in 2018 in partnership with the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH). During its first phase, the programme funded seven projects in five countries: Colombia, Ghana, Senegal, India and Vietnam, and laid the foundations for a global knowledge management platform. It also provided an important test-bed for the Foundation’s ‘Evidence to Action’ framework, and led to the creation of a new SDG accountability tool in partnership with UN-Habitat.
In 2022, a second five-year phase of HCA was launched in collaboration with Ecorys. Phase II builds on and expands the work of Phase I projects, as well as supports new initiatives across six target countries — adding Ecuador to the original five. It will continue to drive forward the implementation of the E2A framework to promote a global learning agenda around youth wellbeing in intermediary cities, as well as collaborate closely with UN-Habitat on the Youth 2030 Cities initiative, and other global policy advocacy efforts.
Duration of program
Phase I: 2019 – 2022
Phase II: 2022 – 2026
Ecuador
“I feel heard, I feel I am the voice of girls, boys, #adolescents and young people.”
– HCA participant who shares her journey with #Alzatuvoz in Riobamba
Colombia
“My neighbourhood provoked a lot of fear. I think the moment that Vivo Mi Calle arrived to this community, it became the light that this neighbourhood needed in order to change.”
Colombia
“I can see everyone transforming not only their community, but also their city, and even the country”
Resources
Visit the Healthy Cities for Adolescents website
Website
Learn more about the Healthy Cities for Adolescents projects
Projects
Watch videos from Phase I of the HCA programme
Video
See the Healthy Cities for Adolescents programme in action at the 10th World Urban Forum
Video
Hear from Adriana Quiñones, a young person involved in HCA’s Vivo Mi Calle
Video