ORAL STATEMENT - COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT 2022
Channel: International Federation for Family Development
Date: 2022-04-28

Distinguished chair,
The International Federation for Family Development is present in 70 countries on all continents and our main activity is centered on parenting education with skill-building programmes to help societies to face the tremendous changes that affect families. 
In this regard, our Federation has been fully involved with the Preparations of the 30th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family. [1] The commitment aims at turning the Anniversary into a substantial and enriching discussion to bring the role of the family unit and policies towards social development into reality. Recently, we have been working together with other non-governmental organizations on a Civil Society Declaration. The Declaration tries to integrate family needs into the various Megatrends proposed by the Secretary General. [2]
The Megatrend that we are focusing on this year together with UN-DESA is Urbanization. We have promoted a focus group with global experts to design and implement services and interventions for sustained and inclusive economic growth. The following experts’ recommendations for urban families are meant to reduce the effects of poverty and social exclusion on children in need of support and protection:
- Implement industrial relations policies for active employment including adequate minimum wages 
- Coordinate the design of family policies at the national level and its implementation at regional and local settlements
- Provide education aimed at helping families be good educators and improve their parenting skills 
- Link the labor market needs to education opportunities for the unemployed, including tackling inequality of access for women to educational opportunities. 
- Address demographic challenges through context-specific social integration policy design to combat extreme and relative income poverty of families.
- Prepare policies and programs that address family risks related to children’s costs, particularly through tax credits, family benefits or family grants, both for low-income families and middle-income families 
- Put families at the center of the community by rewriting the idea of cities as a social space, including testing each plan for city design and city planning on how it will influence family living and people contemplating starting a family in the city. 
- Introduce local active inclusive ecosystems to combat and prevent poverty, social exclusion, and other social risks connected to market failure
- Measure the support for social participation for people at a disadvantage of entering the labor market, as persons with a disability, single-parent and older persons. 
Thank you, chair.