The 2019 International Day of Families will focus this year on “Families and Climate Action: Focus on SDG13”. The annual observance reflects the importance the international community attaches to families and their role in development. Recent commemorations of the Day focused on the role of families for the achievement of SDGs 1 – 5 and SDG 16. The 2019 observance focuses on families, family policies and major SDG13 targets:

In a world where climate change wreaks havoc on our economies, societies and environment, where unemployment and inequalities are rampant and where trust in international cooperation is falling, what can keep us from losing faith that the world 2030 will be a better place for everyone? UN DESA’s World Youth Report offers one good reason for optimism: the next generation is different.

Ahead of the 2019 International Dialogue on Migration on the theme of “Youth and migration: Engaging youth as key partners in migration”, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division has compiled recent facts and figures about migrant youth.

The information captures the changes in both the numbers of youth migrants worldwide and their geographic distribution.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly is convening a High-Level meeting of the General Assembly to launch the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages. The meeting will be held on 1 February 2019, in the General Assembly Hall, from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm.

In its resolution 72/145, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit a report at its seventy-fourth session, through the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council, on the implementation of the objectives of the International Year of the Family and its follow-up processes by Member States and by agencies and bodies of the United Nations system.

Languages play a crucial role in our daily lives. They are not only our first medium for communication, education and social integration, but are also at the heart of each person’s unique identity, cultural history and memory. The ongoing loss of Indigenous languages is particularly devastating, as the complex knowledges and cultures they foster are increasingly being recognized as strategic resources for good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and sustainable development.

The Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of the Department of Economic and Social affairs (UNDESA) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Family policies for inclusive societies”, 15-16 May 2018 at UN Headquarters in New York. In its recent resolution on family issues, the General Assembly invited Member States to invest in a variety of family-oriented policies and programmes, as important tools for, inter alia, fighting poverty, social exclusion and inequality, promoting work-family balance and gender equality and the empowerment

To raise awareness of the importance of Braille for approximately 1.3 billion people living with some form of distance or near vision impairment, on Friday the United Nations is observing the first official World Braille Day.

The Division for Inclusive Social Development of the Department of Economic and Social affairs (UNDESA) in collaboration with the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, and the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD), is organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “The Role of Families and Family Policy in Supporting Youth Transitions” to be held 11-12 December 2018 in Doha in Qatar.