Setelah mempertahankan predikat Kota Layak Anak Utama 6 kali berturut-turut dan meraih nilai tertinggi di Indonesia pada Penghargaan Kabupaten/Kota Layak Anak Tahun 2023 oleh Kementerian PPPA, Kota Surabaya siap naik kelas dengan menjadi Kota Layak Anak Paripurna Pertama di Indonesia.

Berdasarkan Peraturan Menteri Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak Nomor 12 Tahun 2022 tentang Penyelenggaraan Kabupaten/Kota Layak Anak, Kota Layak Anak adalah kota dengan sistem pembangunan yang menjamin pemenuhan hak anak dan perlindungan khusus anak yang dilakukan secara terencana, menyeluruh, dan berkelanjutan.

Terdapat 7 (tujuh) klaster Penyelenggaraan Kota Layak Anak di Indonesia, antara lain:

1. Kelembagaan
2. Hak Sipil Kebebasan
3. Lingkungan keluarga dan Pengasuhan Alternatif
4. Kesehatan Dasar dan Kesejahteraan
5. Pendidikan, Pemanfaatan Waktu Luang dan Kegiatan Budaya
6. Perlindungan Khusus
7. Kecamatan dan Kelurahan Layak Anak

Dalam melaksanakan setiap klaster Kota Layak Anak tersebut, Pemerintah Kota Surabaya selalu melibatkan anak-anak di Kota Surabaya. Disamping itu, Pemerintah Kota terus berupaya untuk meningkatkan partisipasi anak dalam pembangunan. Salah satunya dengan memberikan hak akses untuk anak-anak agar dapat memberikan saran dan masukannya melalui musrenbang kelurahan, musrenbang kecamatan dan musrenbang kota. Yang tak kalah istimewa, telah dibentuk Forum Anak Kota Surabaya, Forum Anak Kecamatan di 31 Kecamatan serta Forum Anak Kelurahan di 153 Kelurahan di Kota Surabaya.

Pada tahun 2023, Forum Anak Surabaya mencetak beberapa prestasi di tingkat Jawa Timur bahkan Nasional. Diantaranya adalah, Forum Anak Surabaya menjadi Forum Anak Terbaik di Jawa Timur pada Atmaja Award 2023 serta meraih Media Sosial terbaik Daffa Award 2023 yang merupakan ajang penghargaan untuk Forum Anak se-Indonesia yang diselenggarakan oleh Kementerian PPPA.

Yang pasti, Forum Anak Surabaya, Kecamatan dan Kelurahan senantiasa mendukung penuh pelaksanaan Kota Layak Anak di Kota Surabaya agar bisa naik kelas menjadi Kota Layak Anak Paripurna di Tahun 2024.

Surabaya City Government through the Board of Regional Planning and Research Development (Bappedalitbang) is once again holding the 2024 Surabaya Innovation Competition (Inovboyo).

The Head of the Board of Regional Planning and Research Development, Irvan Wahyudrajad, said that this competition aimed to encourage all levels of society as well as Local Government Department (Perangkat Daerah) in Surabaya to contribute their ideas of innovations for the advancement of the city. Bappedalitbang initiates this competition at the first place and organizes it every year to create an atmosphere encouraging people in Surabaya to think in creative ways and in the long term it is expected that innovation could be a culture for the city and a shared character of the society. Therefore, innovation is going to be an integral part of the city’s development and eventually, Surabaya will escalate as a barometer of innovation in Indonesia.

Therefore, Irvan gave the message and invited the entire community and local government working units to actively participate in this innovation battle since it could create an exceptional impact for Surabaya as well as for Indonesia. "Innovation is not only about a new application, innovation can be concrete solutions to problems that are now arising in society. Innovation can be a product, a service, a business model or strategy that allows the city’s issues to be solved better and faster. It doesn't have to be an application because there are too many applications already," said Irvan, on Saturday (20/1/2023).

The 2024 Inovboyo competition consists of three categories. The first is technological innovation based on websites, mobile apps, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Virtual Reality (VR). Second, innovation and invention in the economic sector. While the third category is non-economic technological innovation and invention.

Irvan further elaborated that there were some criteria for the innovations that could be registered for the 2024 Inovboyo competition. Primarily, the innovations have to introduce novelties in all or some elements. Apart from that, the innovations have to provide benefits to the city and society. Additionally, the innovations must not lead to inappropriate impositions or restrictions in the society as well as law violations. "The innovations also have to be relevant to the present concerns of Surabaya City Government and must be replicable," explained Irvan.

He continued that the Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi, wanted the new innovations could relate and be applied to the recent prioritized programs of the City Government, specifically, environmental management, public street lighting system, education, flood management and digitalization.

Regarding the procedure of the 2024 Inovboyo competition, once the innovations are submitted, they will be selected by a team of judges from academics from Universities, the East Java Provincial Government, and the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs. Afterwards, 6 (six) winners of the best innovations will be selected and will receive coaching money, trophies and certificates from the Surabaya City Mayor.

For Surabaya populaces who would like to participate in contributing their innovations for the City’s development, please kindly register via the website merdeka.surabaya.go.id starting from January, 2024. Inovboyo previously broke the national record as the most participants in innovation competitions and therefore, was listed in the Museum of Indonesian Records (MURI) in 2022.

"Bappedalitbang encourages and accommodates all innovations, both external and internal," Irvan concluded.

Surabaya City Government has been moving quickly to handle polio and has successfully carried out the immunization simultaneously on January 15, 2024. This sub-PIN Polio activity was held in accordance to the Circular Letter from the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia Number IM.02.03/Menkes/1051/2023 dated 29 December 2023 concerning the Implementation of Sub-PIN in the context of Handling the Polio Outbreak cVDPV2. The sub-PIN Polio activity will be carried out in 2 rounds. The first round is now being conducted, specifically on January 15-21, 2024 while the second round will be administered on February 19-25, 2024.

On the other hand, aspiring that the immunization was conducted as soon as possible and met the target, the Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi, ordered the polio immunization was carried out within one day in several places all at once, precisely in integrated service post (posyandu), neighborhood health centers (puskesmas), early childhood education centers (PAUD), kindergartens and elementary schools.

"The spread of the virus can have fatal consequences, cause paralysis and cannot be cured. Therefore, it is imperative that the immunization be conducted within a day", said the Mayor after giving a briefing at Graha Sawunggaling, Tuesday (9/1/2024).

The Head of Health Department, Nanik Sukristina, stated that polio immunization is carried out by providing novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to all children in Surabaya with the age range of 0-7 years regardless of their previous immunization status. The target is all children within that age range in the city, which is 329,616 children. This number is divided into two groups, specifically school and non-school children. The number of non-school children is 122,947 children while the number of school children reaches 62,70% of the targeted number, which is 206,669 children.

Cak Eri has found a success formula to meet the targeted number of children being immunized. The Mayor asked Nanik to monitor the sub-PIN Polio activity by utilizing the application. This application contains all the names and addresses of the infants and children up to 7 years old in Surabaya. After the immunization, the names of the children are marked to separate the children who have been immunized and those who have not. By this application, the head of sub-district (Camat) and the head of urban village (Lurah) can monitor which ones who have not been immunized in their respective areas. Hence, they can immediately bring those children to the nearest neighborhood halls to receive polio vaccine drops. This formula has been proven successful because within 3 days of the implementation of sub-PIN Polio activity, the fulfilment rate has reached 94,02 percent.

Polio is a virus that is contagious and attacks the nervous system, causing permanent paralysis of the muscles in the body's limbs. Polio virus can be transmitted through food or drink contaminated by feces from children infected with the Polio virus. The Polio virus incubation period is between 3-6 days and afterwards, paralysis occurs within 7-21 days. Clinical symptoms that may arise include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, as well as pain in the limbs. In addition to immunization, clean and healthy living behavior (PHBS) is a crucial key in preventing the spread of the polio virus throughout the society. This is due to the fact that the way the polio virus is transmitted is through feces or human waste.

In Surabaya, as ordered by the Mayor, the first round was administered simultaneously on January 15, 2024 and the second round will be organized on February 15, 2024. The Board of Regional Planning and Research Development (Bappedalitbang) Surabaya has contributed actively during the first round of sub-PIN Polio activity by spreading the awareness of the importance of polio immunization and participating directly in the showground to monitor as well as to perform outreach in areas that have not yet reached the 100 percent target.

The signing of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) Annual Work Plan was carried out by the Surabaya City Government together with UNICEF Indonesia and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) at the West Building of Balai Pemuda, Jl. Governor Suryo No. 15, Surabaya, on 14 November 2023. This signing marks Surabaya as the first city in Indonesia to join the CFCI global network.

As a leading city in the implementation of Kabupaten/Kota Layak Anak (Child-Friendly City) in Indonesia and a holder of the “Utama” award for six consecutive years, Surabaya would like to strengthen its efforts to fulfill children’s rights by enhancing meaningful participation and empowerment of the children and young people.

Since 1996, UNICEF’s CFCI framework has helped cities in all parts of the world to fulfill the rights of children, using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as its foundation. The global network of Child Friendly Cities around the world connects diverse stakeholders who are committed to make their cities and communities more child friendly.

On the other hand, Surabaya City Government has participated in a UNICEF-sponsored CFCI Summit and pledged to support the Youth Manifesto that was declared at the Summit in 2019 and has collaborated with UNICEF ever since to continuously enhance the children’s protection and well-being. Therefore, this signing was carried out because Surabaya always has a commitment to become a child-friendly place. This is linked to the vision of "mutual cooperation towards an advanced, humanist and sustainable world city" which is outlined in the mission of realizing child welfare, educating children as superior human resources, improving infrastructure for children, developing child-friendly public services, and providing legal protection for children.

The Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi, expresses his appreciation for the collaboration between the Surabaya City Government, UNICEF Indonesia and Bappenas in the CFCI Program. Eri says that children are the nation's assets and hopes, so they need to be given special attention and protection. Furthermore, Eri invites all parties to participate and synergize to jointly build Surabaya as a friendly, safe and prosperous city.

It is expected that the CFCI program can provide real benefits for children in Surabaya, especially in terms of health, education and participation in Surabaya’s development.

CFCI is a global initiative led by UNICEF to support local governments in realizing children's rights at the local level. The CFCI program aims to facilitate the efforts of the Surabaya City Government in realizing the aspiration of Surabaya as a Child Friendly City, namely a city that fulfills children's rights and protects children from all forms of violence, discrimination and exploitation.

The CFCI program focuses on five priority areas, as follows: (1) Improving the quality of health, education and child protection; (2) Strengthening children's participation in planning, budgeting and monitoring in the city’s development; (3) Increasing capacity and coordination between government, society and the business world in building child-friendly city; (4) Increasing public awareness and contribution for children's rights; and (5) Increasing the availability and utilization of data related to the circumstances of children in Surabaya.