Summit Overview

The World Family Summit +1 was organized by the World Family Organization with the support of the United Nations - Department of Economic and Social Affairs/NGO-Section/UN-NGO-Informal Regional Network, hosted by the Government of Sergipe State, Brazil, and held in Aracaju City, from December 3 to 8, 2005.

The theme of the Summit, Investing in Development: Working the Millennium Development Goals at the Local Level and in the Family provided a very fertile ground for discussions on innovative ways to implement the Millennium Development Goals and adopt a Practical Plan of Action that can be easily executed at the Local Level, priorizing Family focused social public policies, with full participation of the community and the Family.

Around the world, the great engagement of citizens, families and communities is becoming a feature of many governments and both public and private organizations. Families are expecting to be involved and to have a say in the business of local governments and in the political decisions that affect their interests.

The implementation of the Millennium Development Goals by the Local Authorities focusing public social policies and the actions recommended on the Family are renewing commitments to effective engagements of all sectors of society to deliver better results for families and communities.

In many different contexts and at local, state, regional, national and international levels there are public, private, NGOs and other community organizations engaging in ways that are making a difference and that are worth hearing about and learning from.

The Summit provided delegates with the opportunity to hear and share examples of contemporary practices, theories and policies from around the world, connected to the benefits of the implementations of the Millennium Development Goals at the Local Level.

The program was designed to open dialogue and encourage the development and maintenance of productive relationships between all stakeholders.

The objectives of the Summit were to:

• Promote understanding of the concept of engagement and participative practices in implementig the Millennium Development Goals at the Local Level and in the Family;
• Explore "what works", showcase innovation and promote good practices;
• Share practices knowledge across the globe, at local, state and regional levels and promote learning across disciplines and sectors;
• Discuss and develop conceptual and theoretical frameworks and a practical plan of action that shows directions for the future and underpins practices;
• Build understanding and leadership, capacity and capability issues for families, communities and local authorities;
• Create ongoing local, national and international networks and collaboration, developing communities of interest around the Family Perspectives.

The expected results are the following:

• Increase the knowledge of Local Actors and Local Authorities about the Millennium Development Goals and the practical ways to implement them in the day-by-day life;
• Increase the capacity and willingness of Local Authorities to interact with Families to establish Family-focused social public policies;
• Increase the capacity and the willingness of families to participate in local policy discussions, formulation and implementation according to the Millennium Development Goals;
• Establish concrete modes of cooperation between local authorities and families to perform activities, capacity building and concrete local projects.

The Summit was attended by Senior members of national, regional and local governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, leading researchers in family issues, parliamentarian groups, judges in charge of family issues, United Nations agencies and the business community.

The Official languages of all plenary sessions were English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

All documents of the Summit will be posted on the World Family Organization website and on the UN-NGO-Informal Region Network (UN-NGO-IRENE) website.