The Sharjah Baby Friendly Project has been shortlisted by the debut edition of the UNICEF Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) Inspire Awards, which received 227 entries from cities around the world.

Sharjah is the only Arab city in the running among 20 finalists for its project, which aims to foster a culture of breastfeeding in the emirate, and educate medical professionals, mothers and the community on its immense health benefits for both mother and baby. It is implemented by the Sharjah Baby Friendly Office (SBFO).

SBFO is urging the public to vote for the emirate as an online public vote, combined with the scores from the award’s Technical Review Panel, will determine the winners. The online vote canbe cast here: https://childfriendlycities.org/2019-summit/vote/ until October 15.

Winners of the CFCI Inspire Awards will be announced on October 17, 2019, at the first global Child Friendly Cities Summit in Cologne, Germany.

Sharjah’s submission is competing in the award’s third category: Child-Friendly Social Services, against two other projects submitted by Baro, Guinea, Torrelodones, Spain. The award has six categories in total.

Following Emiri decree No. 4 in February 2011, issued by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the ‘Sharjah Baby Friendly Project’ (previously Baby-Friendly Emirate Campaign) was launched in 2011 under the theme ‘A Right Beginning for a Better Future’.

It encompassed four initiatives: Baby-Friendly Health Facilities, Mother-Friendly Workplaces, Mother and Baby-Friendly Public Places, and Breastfeeding-Friendly Nurseries. These initiatives aimed to design policy and create spaces which are breastfeeding-friendly to encourage a culture of breastfeeding in the emirate. The campaign’s success came with Sharjah being named the world’s first Baby-Friendly City in 2015 by World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF.

By 2018, the project boosted breastfeeding rates in Sharjah to 57 percent, which exceeds WHO’s global target of 50 percent. Families residing in the emirate enjoy baby-friendly workplaces, nurseries, health facilities, and public spaces. Working mothers in Sharjah enjoy a three-month paid maternity leave along with their 30-day annual leave, taking paid leaves for them up to 120 days the year they give birth.

Since 2012, the emirate has accredited 19 government and private health facilities as Baby-Friendly, 30 nurseries as Breastfeeding-Friendly, 22 public places as Mother-Baby Friendly, 73 workplaces as Mother-Friendly.

Dr. Hessa Al Ghazal, Executive Director of Sharjah Baby-Friendly Office (SBFO), said: “To be in the CFCI Inspire Awards shortlist is a tremendous achievement, and a fruition of Sharjah’s tireless efforts to empower children and youth, and offer them a living environment that meets international standards. All projects we launched reflect the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi, and his wife, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs. This ambitious vision brought together all entities serving the mother and child. We still have a long way to go. Our ambition is to turn Sharjah into the world’s first Family-Friendly City”.

“We call on our partners and entities in the Arab world as well as our people to support further our efforts to protect and foster the rights of nursing mothers and children with their vote for the UAE,” she added.

By launching the first-ever CFCI Inspire Awards, UNICEF aims to celebrate good, innovative and inspiring solutions or projects that foster child rights at the local level and improve the daily lives of children and young people in the cities and communities where they live.

The shortlisted entries across 6 categories were evaluated and accessed by an expert Technical Review Panel in line with the following criteria that makes an entry an Inspire Awards winner; the demonstrated results, creativity and innovation, replicability and finally conformity and integration of CFCI guiding principles.

SBFO is gearing up to participate in the first International Child Friendly Cities Summit, to be held in Cologne, Germany from October 15 – 18. Sharjah’s official delegation to the summit will include youth. The Office will be speaking at a panel session, ‘Family-Friendly Policies’.