Fighting child poverty in European cities – Lessons from cities for the EU Child Guarantee

Cities play a key role in breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and ensuring equal opportunities for all children. Cities have stepped up their actions to support children and their families, yet child poverty is on the rise, hitting the poorest hardest. The aim of this report is s to understand what cities are doing to protect children from poverty, what specific measures they put in place to enhance equal opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and what more needs to be done to eradicate child poverty in our cities and in Europe.

Many cities already deliver comprehensive strategies to prevent and mitigate child poverty at local level. However, it was found that cities’ efforts are not always recognised or supported at national and EU levels. Cities are investing many resources from their municipal budgets in child and family services and integrating those with other municipal services such as healthcare, housing, employment and social services, but due to the increasing levels of child poverty and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children, these resources are no longer sufficient and need to be complemented by higher social investments in children from national and EU budgets.

Authors: B. Faragau, S. Molard, N. Heras, T. Carey, F. Locati, D. Wiering

Find  the publication here.