Follow-Up to the 30th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family and Beyond

Encourages Governments to continue their efforts to implement the objectives of the International Year of the Family and its follow-up processes and to develop strategies and programmes aimed at strengthening national capacities to address national priorities relating to family issues and to step up their efforts, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, to implement those objectives, in particular in the areas of fighting poverty and hunger, to prevent the intergenerational transfer and feminization of poverty and ensure the well-being of all at all ages in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Calls upon Member States to give due consideration to advancing family-friendly and family-oriented policy development for the full benefit of future generations;

Calls upon Member States, United Nations entities, within their respective mandates, and other relevant stakeholders, to offer support to family members, including working parents, and provide access to full and productive employment and decent work, as well as effective, inclusive, resilient and gender-responsive social protection systems and public services, including accessible and affordable childcare, expanded child and family benefits, paid parental leave and sick leave, improved flexibility of working arrangements and investments in parenting education;

Calls upon Member States, United Nations entities and relevant stakeholders to promote the effective follow-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family at the national, regional and international levels through practical initiatives, including family-oriented policies and programmes responding to the needs of all families;

Invites relevant stakeholders to support research and awareness-raising activities at the national, regional and international levels on the impact of technological, urbanization, migration, demographic and climate change and other contemporary trends on families;

Encourages Member States, as part of the follow-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, to integrate a family-oriented approach into relevant policymaking;

Invites Member States and relevant stakeholders within the area of technological change and its impact on families to bridge the digital divide, including between developed and developing countries, as well as the gender digital divide, to enable equal access to risk-informed information, knowledge and communications, by taking concrete measures to promote equal access for all to digital training, capacity-building, through equal access to information and communications technologies, mobile devices and the Internet, so as to promote their empowerment and digital literacy, and to improve access to the Internet, higher-speed Internet and digital devices for families, especially those in vulnerable situations, invest in the digital literacy skills of all family members, invest in parenting education, including through the use of technology, as a valuable preventive strategy against cyberbullying and violence against children in digital contexts and for reducing child neglect, and support the healthy development of children, as part of child-focused policies and as a component of wider family-oriented policies and programmes;

Invites relevant stakeholders, including Member States, to promote work-family balance in the digital world, grant workers with family responsibilities flexibility in work schedules to enable them to meet the needs of work and family and invest in reliable technology support and education;

Invites Member States and relevant stakeholders within the area of urbanization and its impact on families to invest in sustainable urbanization, including through the provision of adequate infrastructure, accessible transportation, affordable housing and intergenerational living arrangements;

Invites Member States to further invest in services for families, social service centres and transportation, to benefit families and prevent family homelessness and address its causes, including poverty, domestic violence and the lack of affordable housing, and to build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination;

Invites all relevant stakeholders to incorporate into urban planning a wide range of stakeholders, including low-income households, female-headed households, women, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, those experiencing homelessness, those living in poverty, including extreme poverty, and those in vulnerable situations, and to promote planned and well-managed urbanization through effective coordination between local and State governments and long-term public-private financial partnerships;

Invites Member States and all relevant stakeholders to promote reunification policies under national law related to migration, with the best interest of the child as the basic concern, while also taking into consideration the overall well-being of the family;

Encourages Member States to promote social protection systems for all, in line with national policies, and to target families in vulnerable situations, such as migrant families, those in precarious housing situations, those living in conflict zones or areas susceptible to natural disasters induced by climate change, Indigenous families and families with a member with disabilities;

Invites Member States and other stakeholders to invest in awareness-raising and media campaigns to disseminate information on the availability of housing, employment, educational opportunities and social services for families and their members;

Encourages Member States to integrate and maintain a gender perspective in family-related policies, in particular in the context of migration and homelessness;

Invites Member States to enact family-oriented policies in response to demographic changes affecting families and increase investments in this regard in order to ensure universal health coverage and access to inclusive, equitable and quality education, including in rural and remote areas, as well as to undertake efforts to promote healthy early childhood development and to eliminate harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, through legal, social, economic and educational measures, and by working at the community level to eliminate negative social norms and attitudes, including through public awareness campaigns on the negative consequences of those practices, and reducing maternal mortality, and to promote the empowerment of women and girls in overall family policymaking;

Encourages Member States to develop and strengthen family-oriented and family-friendly policies and programmes for the well-being of family members and to take measures to significantly reduce maternal, perinatal, neonatal, infant and child mortality and morbidity and increase access to quality healthcare for newborns, infants and children, as well as all women before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth, including through providing antenatal and postnatal care, sufficient numbers of skilled birth attendants and adequately supplied birthing facilities;

Invites Member States to strengthen public policies, including family-oriented policies, by investing in social security, as well as in social protection systems, pensions systems and care systems for all, and in informal and formal caregiver support;

Also invites Member States to take a multigenerational, life-course approach to public policy, including inclusive social policies, recognizing the contributions of all generations to society and strengthening intergenerational solidarity, and expand evidence-based research on demographic trends and their impact on families in order to develop appropriate family-oriented policies, as well as policies aimed at ensuring healthy early childhood development;

Further invites Member States to design and implement policies that protect families from the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation and natural disasters, which pose particular risks to pregnant women, infants and children under the age of 5, persons with disabilities and older persons, and to invest in education and public awareness on extreme weather events and related risks, in a manner responsive to their needs;

Invites Member States to invest in a variety of inclusive, family-oriented gender-sensitive policies and programmes, which take into account the different needs and expectations of all families, as important tools for, inter alia, fighting poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and inequality, promoting work-family balance and gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and advancing social integration and intergenerational solidarity, to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda;

Encourages Member States to continue to enact inclusive and responsive family-oriented policies for poverty reduction to confront family poverty and social exclusion, recognizing the multidimensional aspects of poverty, focusing on inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning for all, health and well-being for all at all ages, full and productive employment, decent work, social security, livelihoods and social cohesion, including through gender- and age-sensitive social protection systems and measures, such as child allowances for parents and pension benefits for older persons, and to ensure that the rights, capabilities and responsibilities of all family members are respected;

Also encourages Member States to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work, particularly by women, and enhance efforts to ensure equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, and to promote work-family balance as conducive to the well-being of children, youth, persons with disabilities and older persons and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, inter alia, through the improvement of working conditions for workers with family responsibilities, expanding flexible working arrangements, including through the use of new information and communications technologies, and providing and/or expanding leave arrangements, such as maternity leave and paternity leave, and adequate social security benefits for both women and men, taking appropriate steps to ensure that they are not discriminated against when availing themselves of such benefits and promoting men’s awareness and use of such opportunities, for their children’s developmental benefit and as a means of enabling women to increase their participation in the labour market;

Further encourages Member States to take appropriate steps to provide affordable, accessible and good-quality childcare facilities and facilities for children and other dependants and measures promoting the equal sharing of household responsibilities between women and men, recognizing, reducing and redistributing women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work and fully engaging men and boys as agents and beneficiaries of change and as strategic partners and allies in this regard;

Encourages Member States to invest in family-oriented policies and programmes that enhance strong intergenerational interactions, such as intergenerational living arrangements, parenting education, including for family caregivers, and support for grandparents, including grandparents who are primary caregivers, in an effort to promote inclusive urbanization, active ageing, intergenerational solidarity and social cohesion;

Also encourages Member States to invest in family-oriented policies and programmes and to provide universal and gender-sensitive social protection systems, which are key to ensuring poverty reduction, including, as appropriate, targeted cash transfers for families in vulnerable situations, as can be the case of families headed by a single parent, in particular those headed by women, and which are most effective in reducing poverty when accompanied by other measures, such as providing access to basic services, high-quality education and healthcare services, in addition to family services and counselling;

Further encourages Member States to provide legal identity including birth registration, in accordance with international law, including relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child³ and/or relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,⁴ and death registration, as a means of, inter alia, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and access to benefits, including social protection;

Encourages Member States to invest in parenting education as a tool to enhance children’s well-being and prevent all forms of violence against children, including through promoting non‑violent forms of discipline, and to ensure that parenting education programmes are inclusive of parents, grandparents and, where applicable, the members of the extended family or community as provided by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally responsible for the children, maintaining a gender perspective throughout;

Also encourages Member States to implement family-friendly and family-oriented policies that support the social and economic development of children and young people so that they can reach their full potential and enjoy their human rights;

Further encourages Member States to establish policies that support all families in providing a nurturing environment, and in preventing and eliminating domestic violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage;

Encourages Member States to improve the collection and use of data, disaggregated by age, sex and other relevant criteria, for the formulation and evaluation of family-oriented policies and programmes to effectively respond to the challenges faced by families and harness their contribution to development;

Encourages Governments to support the United Nations trust fund on family activities;

Encourages Member States to strengthen cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including United Nations entities, civil society, academic institutions and the private sector, in the development and implementation of relevant family-oriented policies and programmes;

Encourages further collaboration between the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat and the United Nations entities, agencies, funds and programmes, as well as other relevant intergovernmental and non‑governmental organizations active in the family field, as well as the enhancement of research efforts and awareness-raising activities relating to the objectives of the International Year and its follow-up processes;

Requests the focal point on the family of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs to enhance collaboration with the regional commissions, funds and programmes, recommends that the roles of focal points within the United Nations system be reaffirmed, and invites Member States to increase technical cooperation efforts, consider enhancing the role of the regional commissions on family issues and continue to provide resources for those efforts, facilitate the coordination of national and international non‑governmental organizations on family issues and enhance cooperation with all relevant stakeholders to promote family issues and develop partnerships in this regard;

Calls upon Member States and agencies and bodies of the United Nations system, in consultation with civil society and other relevant stakeholders, to continue to provide information on their activities, including on good practices at the national, regional and international levels, including the relevant United Nations forums, in support of the objectives of the International Year and its follow-up processes, to be included in the report of the Secretary-General;

Encourages Member States and other relevant stakeholders to organize and participate in events as a follow-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its eighty-second session, through the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council, on the implementation of the present resolution and on the follow-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the International Year and beyond;