Tec de Monterrey Campus Mexico City Spearheads First Urban Program for Children in Latin America
Mexico City, January 30, 2026 – Tec de Monterrey’s Mexico City campus recently served as the hub for the first-ever Urban95 Academy for Latin America and the Caribbean. This pioneering program brought together representatives from 10 Latin American cities with the shared goal of transforming their urban environments to be more supportive of child development.
The Urban95 Academy is a comprehensive training program designed for municipal leaders globally. Its objective is to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to develop and implement strategies that make cities better places for infants, children, and their caregivers.
Intensive Training for 10 Latin American Cities
For one intensive week, representatives from ten Latin American cities-Mérida, Mexicali, La Ceja, Medellín, Cuenca, Comuna de Independencia, Puerto Varas, Niterói, Montevideo, and General San Martín-received in-person training. This on-site experience followed seven weeks of an executive online course, jointly delivered by professors from Tecnológico de Monterrey and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The initiative was further bolstered by the support of the Van Leer Foundation, FEEMSA Foundation, and knowledge partners from the Urban95 region. These organizations acted as catalysts for the ideas shared, all aimed at enhancing the lives of early childhood populations in urban settings.
Creating Child-Friendly Cities: A Collaborative Effort
Nélida Escobedo, an associate professor at the School of Architecture, Art and Design and academic director of the Urban95 Academy for Latin America and the Caribbean, facilitated the program’s execution at Tec de Monterrey through the university’s Center for the Future of Cities.
Escobedo highlighted the collective purpose uniting the 30 representatives from the participating cities: “The cities present here are distinct from each other, but they all share the purpose of building environments where children can grow and inhabit the city with dignity. From Tec, we are academic partners in this regional effort, contributing the experience of our professors.”
The core principle of Urban95 encourages cities worldwide to design accessible spaces for the greatest number of families by posing a crucial question: if you could experience the city from the perspective of a 3-year-old, what would you change?
The program emphasizes that the main lesson in creating child-friendly cities is to design for well-being, equity, and care. This includes fostering healthy urban environments with clean air and eliminating hazards that create stressful conditions.
Furthermore, the program underscores the importance of recognizing that caregivers significantly influence the places children visit and the duration of their stay. Therefore, it is essential for caregivers to feel comfortable and secure to foster positive relationships within these spaces.
From Planning to Action: Transforming Urban Realities
Zaida Muxí, Faculty of Excellence in Architecture at the School of Architecture, Art and Design at Tecnológico de Monterrey, emphasized that “care should be seen as a collective responsibility and a central axis of urban policy.” Muxí is part of the Faculty of Excellence initiative, which attracts internationally recognized professors to Tec’s faculty to generate knowledge and leadership in high-impact projects.
During the panel “Caring Cities: From Policies to Details,” Muxí explained that the process of transforming a city begins with observing its phenomena. This is followed by planning, which involves evaluating current urban variables and reimagining the use of existing areas to create new spaces.
“To improve the quality of life for children in cities, planning becomes especially exciting because elements that others would consider waste can represent a different and more friendly world for them,” Muxí remarked.
The final stage involves political project action, which integrates various strategies and specific actions for each project, all rooted in planning, to transform the social reality of a community.
“Cities share the purpose of building dignified environments for everyone,” reiterated Nélida Escobedo.
The representatives from the 10 cities who participated in the residency week at Tec de Monterrey’s Mexico City campus will receive ongoing follow-up and technical assistance. This support aims to help them achieve their project objectives upon returning to their respective cities.
“We want to provide the necessary support in the development of the proposals, allowing the knowledge acquired during the program to be put into practice,” Escobedo concluded.
