At just 17, Imtiaz from Bangladesh emerged as a powerful young voice for urban children at the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Azerbaijan. A child rights advocate and member of the National Children’s Task Force, Imtiaz delivered a powerful message: a safe home is the foundation upon which all other children's rights are built.
His first step toward Baku began after he won the creative storytelling competition, "The City through A Child's Eyes," organised by Save the Children Bangladesh, and was subsequently invited to the event by UN-HABITAT.
At the forum, Imtiaz stood alongside global leaders like Dr. Sarah Sabry, Save the Children's Global Urban Lead and founding chair of the Global Alliance – Cities4Children. Imtiaz's journey to WUF13 from a creative reel competition in Dhaka to a global forum in Baku is a testament to the power of youth’s voices in shaping the future of our cities.
Here are some direct quotes from the speeches Imtiaz delicered to world leaders at the World Urban Forum:
My name is Imtiaz Ahmed. I am 17 years old, and I come from Bangladesh - a land of natural beauty, but also a land where children are on the frontlines of a changing world. I grew up in a small town of Sylhet and now live in the capital, Dhaka, the second largest megacity.
For the last six years, I have been working as a child rights advocate with the National Children’s Task Force, Bangladesh — the largest child-led organization in the country, led by children and working for children. As an advocate for child rights, I have seen both the challenges and smiles of children who are vulnerable and living in slums.
When we hear the word "housing," we understand this as bricks, mortar, and statistics. But for a child, a "home" is not just a structure; it is the foundation for every single one of our rights.
Without a safe, livable home, how can a child stay healthy? Without a roof over our heads, how can we access basic rights like clean water, sanitation, or hygiene? When a home is unstable and not safe, education becomes a luxury we can’t afford because we are too busy surviving. We want to highlight that a safe home is the shield that protects us from violence, ensures our basic rights, and is the foundation that allows us to dream.
From my understanding, a child-friendly city must protect its most vulnerable and youngest residents from a threat they did not create: the climate crisis. From my experience working with vulnerable children from the climate-affected communities, they are not just "affected" by climate change - they are living it every single day.
When the floods come, waterlogging happens, or the heatwaves become unbearable, it is the children in slums who first lose their right to play and learn. From our Assembly, we want to bring forward urban planning solutions that account for the rights of the "last mile" children. This means ensuring that even in the densest, poorest neighbourhoods, there is space to breathe, space to move safely, and most importantly, the right to a childhood with dreams.
Finally, to build a sustainable world, we expect that you stop looking at us as just "the future." We are the present. We have our own points of view, priorities, and experiences.
Seventeen-year-old Imtiaz is from Bangladesh. He represented urban children at the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Azerbaijan. As a child rights advocate and member of the National Children’s Task Force, Imtiaz delivered a powerful message: a safe home is the foundation for all other children’s rights. Anupama Nallari/Save the Children
Around 500 million children are surviving in slums and informal settlements. They are not just symbols of suffering. They are incredibly strong. They know how to find joy in the smallest things, and they still keep dreaming.
But we must remember: strength should never be an excuse for injustice and inequality. No child should have to fight every single day just to have their basic rights.
In developing and least developed countries, millions of children don’t live, they just survive. Why are we building cities and towns where one child gets to fly, while another is trapped in a daily battle to survive?
A city can never be truly "child-friendly" if we do not ensure children's rights and their active participation in decision making. This is why we need Active and Meaningful Child Participation. We don’t want to be ignored when the real policies are written and solutions are created. We want to be heard.
We, the children, are the experts in our own way. We know which streets are safe for going to schools. We know how hard it is to play when there are no parks and playgrounds. We know the taste of polluted air in our cities. We feel the joy when you build something for us.
We want our city leaders, designers and global leaders to sit with us, listen to our struggles, experiences and expectations, and create solutions with us and for us.
Seventeen-year-old child activist Imtiaz, from Bangladesh, represented urban children at the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Azerbaijan. Abdul Joy/Save the Children
Our ambition is that the Children and Youth Assembly will call for formal, permanent pathways for children and youth to be active partners in urban governance. We don't want to be invited to meetings and forums just for the sake of participation. We want our points of view and our experiences to be taken seriously when you design our cities, systems, solutions, and policies. When you include us, you aren't just being "kind" - you are being "smart," because a city that works for a child is a city that works for everyone.
Our expectations for this Forum, especially the Children and Youth Assembly, are bold: we expect our Children and Youth DeclarACTION to move beyond these walls and directly shape the official Baku Call to Action, ensuring our rights and participation as the youngest citizens are at the heart of global and national policies and solutions. We expect strong partnerships that take our children and youth-led solutions from this Assembly to every neighbourhood, especially for children who are living in developing and least developed countries, and build cities that truly leave no one behind.
We need you to invest in children's rights. Include our opininon in city planning and budgeting process.
Invest in safe housing, clean drinking water, accessible schools, healthcare, safe streets and playgrounds, and pollution free environments - which will not only benefit children like myself but also millions of children who are just surviving in slums, in streets, engaged in child labour and losing their childhood. And contribute to the overall human development of the countries.
Whether we are from Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, or anywhere else in the world, we deserve cities that don't just "house" us, but "hold" us and "hope" with us. Let’s work together—not for us, but with us—to build a world where every child has a safe place to call home.
