Welcome to the United Nations
June,No.20
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Family Matters |
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| Circular No. 20 | Follow-up to the International Year of the Family - June 1999 | |
The follow up to the International Year of the Family is the responsibility of the Family Unit, the Division for Social Policy and Development within the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The follow-up activities to the International Year of the Family are in accordance with intergovernmental mandates e.g. General Assembly resolutions 50/142 of 21 December 1995 and 52/81 of 12 December 1997 respectively. [The Family Unit welcomes ongoing information and data on family-related policies and programmes from concerned actors and focal points]. Activities of Member States Concerning Follow Up of the International Year of the Family Austria. The Federal government is responsible for many matters which are of direct relevance to family policy. This refers i.e. to legislation in civil law, to labour market policy, the basic policies for higher education, out of school education, prevention and health policy. Austria is a Federal Republic consisting of nine provinces. The Austrian provinces also have substantial responsibilities for family-related matters, such as child care services, primary school education, and housing policies. At the federal level the formal competence for family policy lies within the Federal Ministry of Environment, Youth and Family Affairs. However, given the cross-sectoral character of family policy, important areas of legislation are within the responsibility of other federal ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry for Women's Affairs or the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (administration of parental leave and parental leave payments). The federal constitution does not define an explicit responsibility for family policy. There are, however, some provinces which declare in their provincial constitution the support of the family as a guiding principle of public policy.
Republic of Belarus. The Belarus policy of state family support is mainly aimed at women because the upbringing of children is still seen as their domain and responsibility. Belarus offers social benefits for families which include: maternity benefits; birth allowance (for working women and families); benefits to women registered and regularly attending consultations during pregnancy; allowance for care of a child up to age three (120 per cent of minimum wage / monthly); allowance for children aged 3-16 years; sick child allowance for children under 14 years (100 per cent average wage / not more than 14 calendar days); allowance for care of disabled child not over 16 years; allowance for AIDS affected children up to 16 years; a monthly increase of 25 per cent of the specified child-care allowance is given to single women. Belarus formulated a plan entitled the Basic Principles of State Policy. Its central purpose is to enhance the status of women and the family and ensure the protection of mothers and children. Belarus expects to complete, in the immediate future, the drafting of its National Plan of Action for the Family. The policy is based on the State Family Concept that has already been formulated.
Guyana. The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has the responsibility for developing and implementing national family policies and strategies. These policies and strategies are implemented through the National Commission for the Family which is responsible for setting the guidelines for the family code, the machinery for the family court, and for working in collaboration with other Ministries, NGO's and government agencies in the education, training and motivation of individuals to practice the essentials of good family life. Within the structure of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, there is the Department of Probation and Family Welfare Service which has exclusive responsibility for the provision of family services and the promotion of the welfare of the members of society through:
Iceland. In Iceland, the Ministry of Social Affairs has a division handling family matters. Under this division are child protection and local authorities social services. Other important family issues such as housing, immigration and employment are under the Ministry of Social Affairs. In these areas, the Ministry emphasizes ways to strengthen family-centered components. Following the International Year of the Family, the Ministry of Social Affairs published results from a comprehensive research on family matters emphasizing families with children. This information has been used to a certain degree as guidance towards implementing measures supporting families with children. The Icelandic Committee for the IYF (1994) designed a draft for the creation of comprehensive public family policy, which was presented to the Minister of Social Affairs. As a result, the "Parliamentary Resolution" on the creation of a public family policy and measures to reinforce the status of the family "was passed in the Icelandic Parliament in 1997. The Resolution has been sent to all the Icelandic Ministries as well as to all the local authorities and the authorities are encouraged to use it in their planning and policy making. In accordance with the resolution, a National Family Council has been appointed under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Council is currently preparing a public family policy for the Icelandic government. The role of the National Family Council includes the following inter alia:
Kuwait. The state's care for the family takes several forms beginning with care for children and youth who are provided with cultural, social, recreational services. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour is entrusted with the following tasks: (a) applying the general policy of the state in areas of social solidarity to care for family and individual; (b) undertaking the necessary social surveys to allocate the financial assistant for families and individuals and rent allowances with co-operation of the specialized bodies; (c) performing social surveys upon requests received from official organization; and (d) proposing studies and researches on social phenomenon related to family. Malaysia. Strategies for strengthening the family institution have been developed in line with the objectives of the National Population Policies (NPP). The family policy is subsumed in the overall NPP. The main objective of the family policy is to increase awareness, knowledge and practice of a healthy, stable and harmonious family life. In addition, NPP's main objective is to create a quality population through the strengthening of the family institution. Family issues are the concern of the Ministry of the National Unity and Social Development under which the National Population and Family Development Board is currently emplaced. In Malaysia, the concept of quality population is embodied in Vision 2020, a forward looking development strategy which seeks to develop Malaysia into a fully industrialized country by the year 2020. The Malaysian government has accorded the family its due recognition as a fundamental unit of the society by declaring every eleventh-day of November as the National Family Day. Several programmes and services have been made available for the people such as family counseling, marriage counseling, briefings, dialogues, training workshops, as well as other informal education programmes. Parenting is one of the programmes that has been prioritized by the Board. This includes both formal and non-formal educational approach with specific objectives. The target group includes parents, adolescents, teachers, religious groups, senior government servants and community leaders. Under the Seventh Malaysia Plan (1996-2000), the Board, with the cooperation of experts from various fields and higher institutions of learning, will produce a module package known as KASIH. This package contains six modules: Adolescent Development, Parenting Small Children, Parenting Adolescents, Fatherhood, Marriage, and Reproductive Health. Republic of Mauritius. The Ministry of Women, Family Welfare and Child Development has the responsibility for the development and implementation of policies and projects for the family. Three parastatal bodies operate under the aegis of the Ministry B the National Women's Council, which acts as the coordinating body for women's associations; the National Children's Council, to which NGO's for children are affiliated and which has the responsibility for coordination of activities of NGO's dealing with child protection and welfare; and the National Adoption Council. The Women centres have been renamed as Women and Family Centres since 1996 so as to be accessible to all members of the family rather than exclusively to women. A Protection from Domestic Violence Act was enacted in 1997 with the aim of providing protection to victims of domestic violence and to help in the reconstruction of the family. A Family Counseling Service operates in six decentralized centres and provides counseling in a variety of cases concerning conflicts between couples, breakdown of marriage, property and housing problems in marriage, stress and tension, etc. Norway. The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs is in charge of coordinating government policy in the following spheres: Chidren's affairs, Youth affairs, Family affairs, Equal status, Consumer rights, and Product safety. A cash support scheme for families with young children was introduced on 1 August 1998. Under this scheme, families whose child does not have a full-time place in a day-care institution are paid a monthly sum equivalent to the operating subsidy per full-time place granted by the state to day-care institutions (NOK 3,000 per month). There has been a considerable increase in the number of places offered by day-care institutions in Norway since the mid-1980s. Government policy in this field aims at attaining full coverage by the year 2000. Full coverage means that day-care institution places will be made available to all families requiring them. In addition to the paid leave for parents in connection with childbirth and adoption and the cash support scheme, there are several benefit schemes intended to improve the financial situation of families with children. The most important and most comprehensive scheme is the child benefit paid to all families under 16 years of age. For the first child, NOK 11,112 per year is paid. Slightly more is granted per child for families with more than one child. A supplement of NOK 7,884 per year is granted to families with children aged 1-3. Child benefit is not allocated on the basis of need and is not taxable, and is thus paid in full to all families in Norway. In 1995, a National Programme for Parental Guidance was initiated as a joint project by three Norwegian ministries: the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. The next step in the family field will be to introduce the independent right of fathers to accrue paid parental leave.
United Kingdom. The Family Policy Unit, a recently established section of the Home Office, is the unit which deals with all aspects of Family Policy. The Labour Government, when they came to power in 1997, established an inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on the Family. The Group's remit is to examine the effectiveness and coherence of policies affecting families. The Ministerial Group works by identifying the main problems that families face and considering how Government can best address these problems, in a"joined-up way". The Family Policy Unit itself has various responsibilities; including supporting the Ministerial Group on the Family and ensuring the creation of coherent family policy across Whitehall. There are several new initiatives as part of Family Policy, for which the Unit is responsible. These include the establishment of a new National Family and Parenting Institute, set up to enable parents to identify clear and easy ways to gain access to information on a national scale, and to provide advice, research and information on all available areas of parenting support. Another Family Policy Unit interest is the establishment of ParentLine. This is a national telephone helpline service providing a contact and support for parents to talk through any issues which concern them. ,1 million extra funding is being provided by the Government for ParentLine over the next three years. The Family Support Grant provided ,1 million in support of voluntary organizations this year and will provide an addition ,1 million over the next three years. Other areas of responsibility for the Family Policy Unit are:
Other Government Departments also have a strong interest in different areas of family policy. These are: The Women's Unit, The Department for Education and Employment, The Department of Trade and Industry, Her Majesty's Treasury, The Social Exclusion Unit, The Department of Health, Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions, Department of Social Security, and The Lord Chancellors Department.
Republic of Zambia. The Department of Social Welfare which was started in the fifties (1950) has a number of programmes in place which are targeted at the family and these could be categorized as statutory and non-statutory services. The operations of the Department are at three levels i.e. the Headquarters, Provincial and District levels. The overall objective of the Department is basically to alleviate the suffering of the poor and distressed to improve their quality of life. Some of the strategies used to achieve this objective are: (i) The provision of material assistance in the form of food, blankets, clothing and school requirements for school going children; (ii) The provision of financial support to meet the medical costs of the same targeted group mentioned above; (iii) The provision of counseling services to families and individuals; (iv) The provision of net-working system with other government agencies and non-governmental organizations; and (v) The provision of small financial grants to local area children's committees and children's homes in support of youth activities and children's care for youth and children in difficult circumstances. Zimbabwe. The promotion of family life is spread out in a number of the Government of Zimbabwe ministries and department as follows: (a) Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare (Department of Social Welfare). The Department offers family support through marriage guidance and counseling public assistance to alleviate problems of poverty in the form of material and financial resources, assistance with payment of medical fees or education. The Department runs workshops at community level to raise awareness on issues pertaining to problems faced by children and their families. (b) Ministry of health and Child Welfare runs family planning programmes which address issues of population growth in the country and the quality of life for individuals and families. The Ministry also runs maternal and child health promotion programmes. They also run awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS. (c) Ministry of Agriculture provides agricultural education and training to rural farmers. (d) Ministry of National Affairs pro0motes community development in the rural areas with a view to improve the lot of the families in these areas; and (e) Ministry on Gender Issues was created in the President's Office to specifically promote gender equality in all activities in the country. |
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