Family Futures

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dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

Also with UNDESA, DIFI held the ‘Expert Group Meeting

on Dialogue and Mutual Understanding across Generations’.

This EGM provided member states with expert opinion and

concrete policy recommendations on issues related to youth.

It was convened in observance of the celebration of the

International Year of Youth and as part of the preparatory

activities for the twentieth anniversary of the International

Year of the Family.

The EGM, ‘Confronting Family Poverty and Social

Exclusion: Ensuring work-family balance, advancing social

integration and intergenerational solidarity in Europe’, was

organized by DIFI in collaboration with the International

Federation for Family and Development, the European Union

Committee of Regions and the United Nations Focal Point on

the Family/UNDESA. The event was part of the preparations

for the twentieth anniversary celebrations.

The EGM ‘Protecting the Arab Family from Poverty:

Employment, social integration and intergenerational solidar-

ity’ was held in response to several United Nations General

Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolutions as a

follow-up to the International Year of the Family. The main

issues discussed were social and economic trends affecting

families and the need for adequate policy response; anti-

poverty family-focused policies; employment; family and

work balance, policies and practices; recent trends in family

poverty and social exclusion; demographic and social trends

impacting social integration; and intergenerational solidar-

ity. The meeting explored good practices and lessons learned

and culminated with the production of a comprehensive set

of expert recommendations for poverty eradication through

decent employment and access to basic social services, recon-

ciliation of family-work balance and the promotion of social

integration and intergenerational solidarity.

DIFI has sponsored conferences and research to help

strengthen families and further family policies internation-

ally. Since 2009, it has provided 20 research grants, including

co-funding three of Britain’s Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)

reports. ‘Breakthrough Britain: Every Family Matters’ explores

the financial and emotional cost of family breakdown to indi-

vidual family members and children as well as the costs to

the nation. It estimates that the country’s direct financial

cost of family breakdown is in excess of £20 billion per year.

‘Completing the Revolution: Transforming mental health and

tackling poverty’ provides research implicating the break-

down of the family as a cause of mental health issues, and

gives information on the family’s role in helping its members

recover from mental illness.

The final report from CSJ, ‘It Happens Here: Equipping the

United Kingdom to fight modern slavery’, shows how modern

slavery – including those in domestic servitude, forced labour

and sexual slavery – targets the most vulnerable people and

disadvantaged communities across the world. It illustrates

that the UK is neither impervious nor unscathed by this

phenomenon. The report explains that the little-known issue

of human trafficking, both globally and within the UK, is a

growing problem that shows signs of increase every year. The

impact of this report has been felt globally. Britain’s Home

Secretary has asked CSJ to host national and international

hearings in partnership with Labour Member of Parliament

Frank Field, who will lead the evidence process. Information

from the hearings will provide input for a modern slavery bill.

The International Research on Working Children

Foundation, based in Amsterdam, received a grant to provide

research on violence against children in Kenya. The first

phase of the research provides relevant ethnographic data on

the open and hidden lives of children in order to get a better

understanding of the parameters of childhood in selected

areas. It studies the specific incidence of violence in the various

domains and, subsequently, the changes brought about by

intervention. The second phase focuses on the support-seek-

ing mechanisms of children experiencing violence and offers

new insights into child-friendly policy measures within the

context of poverty, violence and malfunctioning institutions.

Other organizations DIFI has awarded grants to include

the Supreme Council of Information and Communication

Technology in Qatar, which is studying whether there is a

desire to adopt a ‘work from home’ (WFH) model of employ-

ment and whether it would help WFH participants to better

balance their work and domestic life pursuits. Seoul National

University in Korea is investigating how changing tradi-

tional family values along with demographic change, shifting

women’s status and changing family structure affects inter-

generational relations. The International Institute for Family

Enterprises at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany

received a grant to discover the main topics of interest and

concern to Arab family businesses and to better understand

the family dynamic from an economic point of view. And the

Lebanese American University-Institute for Migration Studies

in Lebanon was awarded a grant to learn about the influence

of migration on the family – the focal point for traditions,

value patterns and cultural identity – and how migration

impacts and/or transforms family values and traditions.

DIFI has also sponsored international research conferences

on family-related issues. An outcome of two of the confer-

ences was to form a network of scholars. The ‘Symposium

on Jurisprudence of the Family’, which explores marriage

and marriage laws, led to the International Academy for

Jurisprudence of the Family and a peer reviewed publication,

the

International Journal of the Jurisprudence of the Family

The

Doha Colloquium in Nairobi, Kenya, organized in collabora-

tion with Strathmore Business School, led to the Network for

African Family Scholars, which includes scholars from differ-

ent regions and countries in Africa and partnerships between

the corporate and academic sectors.

DIFI recognizes that social science research indicates that

stable families, founded on marriage, provide significant bene-

fits for men, women and children, and that marital breakdown

imposes substantial costs on individuals and society at large.

It understands the important contributions families make

to society. Because of this understanding, DIFI sponsored

the book,

The Family and the MDGs: Using Family Capital to

Achieve the 8 Millennium Development Goals

. The book provides

information on how families can help achieve the MDGs, as

encouraged by the United Nations Secretary-General.

As DIFI transitions to a research centre it will continue

to hold research conferences and will also provide its own

research to help advance social integration and intergenera-

tional solidarity.