The Importance of the Family in the Eradication of Poverty and for Peace and Prosperity

9th February 2024, UN Headquarters in New York, CSocD62 Side Event dedicated to the importance of the family in the eradication of poverty and for peace and prosperity, was organized by the Mission of Belarus on behalf of 28 Member States of the Group of Friends of the Family in partnership with civil society partners – Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), Family Watch International, and Campaign Life Coalition.

The event, held on the sidelines of the sixty-second session of the Commission on Social Development to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family (1994), highlighted the crucial role of the family in reducing poverty and promoting healthy societies.

“The family is the most powerful predictor of upward economic mobility and the most important social safety net,” said moderator Lisa Correnti, Executive Vice President of C-Fam.

Opening remarks were made by representatives of the Co-chairs of the Group of Friends of the Family – Mr. Fahd Mohammed Al-Khayarin, Assistant Under-Secretary for Social Development, Ministry of Social Development and Family of the State of Qatar; Mr. Pavel Evseenko, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations; and Ms. Heba Mostafa, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations.

Panelist Dr. Timothy Rarick of Brigham Young University — Idaho discussed the importance of balancing the ethics of individualism and community and spoke about social poverty, which is a lack of close and trusted relationships one can rely on, and its correlation with financial poverty. Rarick highlighted the importance of fathers in the lives of their sons and daughters.  

Family Watch provided additional statistics: children raised by two parents rather than one were 40 percent less likely to be held back in school and one-fifth less likely to die as children.  Family instability, on the other hand, was associated with increased disease, stunted growth, and child mortality.

Professor and psychologist Dr. Suzanne Hollman discussed the ways in which concentrated urban poverty cultivates mental illness, which in turn exacerbates poverty. High stress leads to less capacity for empathy, often leading to harsher parenting. 

Errol Naidoo of the Cape Town-based Family Policy Institute spoke about the significance of the family to poverty eradication in Africa.

Finally, several Member States and civil society partners made statements in support of the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

For more information about the 62nd Commission for Social Development (CSocD62), please visit: https://social.desa.un.org/csocd/62nd                                             

Source: Mission of Belarus & Group of Friends of the Family