Zapopan, a city in the Guadalajara metropolitan area and one of the wealthiest municipalities in Mexico, is also one of the country’s most child-friendly cities.
This is largely thanks to the fact that through initiatives that range from inviting children to help design public parks to offering workshops for parents and caregivers, Zapopan’s government has placed child development at the core of its administration. The city first announced its intention to work alongside the Spanish government to meet the qualifications of the Unicef Child-Friendly City certification in 2016, during the mayoralty of Pablo Lemus, now the governor of Jalisco.
As the country’s first city to bill itself a city of children, Zapopan’s objective is to guarantee young residents fundamental rights such as health, education, security, culture, sport and participation, creating spaces and policies designed from the perspective of children.
To understand the initiative’s impact and how it works, Mexico News Daily spoke with Marcela Preciado García de Quevedo, head of the Ciudad de Niñas y Niños (City of Children) program.
“Our goal is to make sure everyone within the municipal government acts with one thought in mind: that we are building a city where children live,” Preciado said.
The Jesuit University of Guadalajara (ITESO) graduate explained that besides the programs they run as an office, their job focuses on bringing a childhood perspective to other areas of government.
“For example, in the area of entrepreneurship, we encourage them to do workshops for children — like a kid’s challenge — who are developing something,” Preciado said. “Or, if the area of training and educational offer wants to include a child perspective in their programs, we show them how to do it through public libraries, municipal centers or the Luciérnaga libraries.”
Luciérnaga libraries are a model inspired by a Korean program that encourages learning and science through play for marginalized communities. Zapopan’s goal is to have 19 of these libraries. It currently has 17, and the city reports that these have benefited over 173,000 people.
The program also seeks to protect kids from domestic violence, child abuse and human trafficking through educational workshops aimed at parents and caregivers.
But Preciado’s job isn’t only focused on high-achieving programs. Her office also oversees routine maintenance work that could potentially impact children.
“If the Public Works Office is pruning a tree, my job is to make sure that workers are mindful that kids might pass by near that tree, reinforcing the importance of safety measures,” she said.
Thanks to Zapopan’s focus on childhood — which has been recognized and supported by Unicef — the municipality earned a national Child-Friendly City (CAN) award by the Mexican Network of Child-Friendly Cities (RMCAN) in 2024, in the category of Community Development. The accolade was awarded for Zapopan’s Help Desk for Children and Adolescents.
“Through this service desk, we listen to the children’s suggestions and show them that they don’t have to wait until they are adults for us to listen to them,” Preciado said after receiving the award.
Through this desk, children can fill out a “magic sheet” expressing what they would like to see in their community, from murals on park walls to new playground equipment and more. This initiative, which launched in 2022, has heard and addressed the concerns of 2,000 children.
Zapopan is also the first entity in Latin America to survey children’s level of happiness. The city’s Child Welfare Survey, first conducted in 2022, assesses education, social fabric, play, health and culture, among other indicators. According to the latest survey, conducted in December 2024, nine out of 10 children in Zapopan are happy.
But for Preciado, the biggest achievement has been raising awareness about the critical importance of the first five years of a child’s life.
“Personally, this is a major achievement because it is during these years that the greatest number of brain connections occur,” she said.
While other municipalities in Mexico are working towards ensuring a safe and healthy lifestyle for its youngest residents, Preciado said that Zapopan continues to be the only municipality in the country that prioritizes children’s wellbeing in its local budget.
“There’s no other municipality like Zapopan,” she said. “No other municipality allocates so many resources to children.”
Gabriela Solis is a Mexican lawyer turned full-time writer. She was born and raised in Guadalajara and covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her lifestyle blog Dunas y Palmeras.
