Pledge 40 – Istanbul

In August 2020, The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, signed a strong letter of commitment to improve the well-being of the 4 million children living in Istanbul and especially provide support to those 28% who live in poverty.

Istanbul is committed to offer affordable and quality childhood education and care for low-income families across the different neighbourhoods in the city and provide holistic support to children and families. To achieve this, Istanbul pledges to:

• Build 150 daycare centres, one per district, until the end of 2024 with an allocated budget of over €43 million and the cooperation of Turkish business. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the city launched online play groups.
• Support children’s nutrition by delivering milk to 115,000 children aged 3-6 years.
• Reinforce Family Support and Education Centres and Psychological Consultation Centres to offer quality consultation services and workshops for children and parents.
• Continue the parent coaching programme with home visits to 1,300 families every year, starting in pregnancy and continuing until children turn 3 years.
• Set up a Master Plan for Playgrounds to build new and improve existing playground across the city, initiate a mobile playground programme to train staff as play workers and organise field trips, workshops, sports and cultural activities for 2000,000 children per year.

Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu said: “Our vision is to make Istanbul an inclusive, fair and child-friendly city – a city that respects children’s rights and improves the well-being of all its children. We hereby commit to making further progress on principle 11 to ensure that all of Istanbul’s children have a fair start in life”.