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The International Day of Families in 2014 marks the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family (IYF) established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994. The IYF offers an opportunity to refocus on the role of families in development; take stock of recent trends in family policy development; share good practices in family policy making; review challenges faced by families worldwide and recommend solutions.
This year, to commemorate the Day, a special DPI/NGO briefing was organized in partnership with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), featuring civil society contributions to promote a better understanding of the strengths, challenges and needs of families, around the world.
Representatives from Governments, UN agencies, academic institutes and other civil society organizations shared their views on the family and ways to include family issues in the post-2015 development framework.
Mr. Raymond Mutura, Vice President of the International Federation for Family Development, called for an increase in the UN Trust Fund on the Family for research and policy development, as well as to involve civil organizations in the preparatory meetings on the families to include related issues into the post-2015 development agenda.
H.E. Mrs. Noor Al‐Malki Al Jehani, Executive Director, Doha International Family Institute, also emphasized strengthening and transforming the UN Trust Fund on the Families, specifically to conduct research that would show why families work and perform. She recommended that the UN should conduct assessments for programmes and policies to see how they are reflected in families everywhere.
“A better way is to provide family-focused and research-based information for policy makers,” Dr. Karen Bogenschneider from University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “Families are under a lot of stresses right now, and policies can provide the conditions for families to deal with some of these stresses.”
“It is critical to hold the family up as important unit in all of our works,” said Ms. Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United.
In terms of communication and collaboration, Dr. Benjamin Frier from Fairleigh Dickinson University noted that the UN should create more opportunities for engagement directly with families, so there would be more direct communication between policy-makers and those individuals that are directly affected by such policies.
For more information, please click here to watch UNSDN full interview with the panelists during the Day.
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