World Family Summit +3

26/11/07 – Monday

27/11/2007– Tuesday

Family and Poverty: Trends and patterns of economic and non-economic aspects of inequality, their causes and consequences. The way forward.

The global commitment to overcoming inequality, or readdressing the imbalance between the wealthy and the poor as clearly outline at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, endorsed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000 and readdressed in the World Social Summit in 2005 is fading. Eighty percent of world's gross domestic product belongs to the 1 billion people living in the developed world and just the remaining 20% is shared by the 5 billion people living in developing countries. Failure to address this inequality predicament is ensuring that social justice and better living conditions for all Families remain elusive and that communities, countries and regions remain vulnerable to social, political and economic upheaval.
This session will discuss the way forward to implement policies to reduce inequalities, therefore poverty as: 1. Readdressing the worldwide asymmetries deriving from globalization. 2. Incorporating in policies and programs specific measures to guarantee access by marginalized groups to assets and opportunities. 3. Expanding and improving opportunities for employment, not only job creation, but also promotion of decent work. 4. Promoting social integration and cohesion as a key to development, peace and security having in mind that social integration requires the full participation of all groups in the social, economic, political and cultural spheres.

Keynote Speaker: Mr. Nikhil Seth - United Nations Office for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination - Director

Preventing Maternal, Newborn and Child Mortality: First Ladies at National and Local Level Mobilizing for Action
Family and children in the globalized world – similarities and differences among regions

1 mother dies from childbirth every minute - every year, more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth. 450 newborn babies die every hour - every year, more than 4 million newborn babies die. 6 million children die before their fifth birthday.
Recent researches have proven that at least two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented by supporting National and Local Level Plans and simple interventions.
In many parts of the world different partnerships have been launched as a new global effort to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.
This Session will present a broad overview of the current global situation regarding maternal, newborn and child health. In particular, it will focus on the key challenges and priority actions required to meet the commitments embodied in the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 of reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality at Local Level. The session will count with National and Local First Ladies as well as former First Ladies willing to participate in the World Family Organization efforts to promote new events and actions, and support the existing ones, comprising governments, ngos, professional associations and academia, civil society, private sector and donors.
This session also will discuss the similarities and differences among regions regarding to family and children.

Panelist: Her Excellency Mrs. Štefka Kucan - Former First Lady of the Republic of Slovenia

Panelist: Mrs. Marina Taniguchi - Former First Lady of Curitiba City - Brazil

"Decent House" and Living Environment: Promoting affordable housing with public basic services and social support to enable families to formulate their vision of development

Housing and the surrounding environment are particular important for the Family, including factors such as accessibility and safety; the financial burden of acquiring and maintaining a home; and the important emotional and psychological security of a home. It is wide recognized that "good housing" can promote good health and well-being of the family. The concept of "good housing" includes the production, management and delivery of basic services as drinkable water, sanitation, waste management, transport, energy and communication.
This session will discuss action-oriented policies and initiatives to reinforce the importance of a "decent house" for the family well-being and the partnership between local authorities and communities to include in their agendas the provision and access to affordable houses and basic services for all.

Moderator: Mr. Eric De Wasch, Vice President of Housing Fund of Gezinsbond - Belgium

Panelist: Mrs. Hafika Khouini - Vice President of Association Tunisienne des Mères

Education is the cornerstone of social and economic development. Education is essential to construct a sustainable world with just societies that values knowledge, promote a culture of peace, celebrate diversity, defends human rights and provides education for all life learning. Time is running out to meet the Education for All goals set in 2000 and can we say that the commitments will be achieved by 2015?
This session will discuss the progress made in the areas of early childhood education, primary education, informal education and the challenges ahead. Also will reflect about the access of marginalized populations to quality education and the equality of opportunities for boys and girls. Finally this session will reflect on how to integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning in order to encourage changes in behavior that allows for a more sustainable and just societies for all.

28/11/2007– Wednesday

Primary Health Care has been recognized as one of the key components of an effective health system. Since the legendary conference of Alma Ata and the Primary Health Care movements many successful experiences have demonstrated that the Primary Health Care principles, values and responsiveness to peoples health needs are still very actual.
This session will discuss how to renew and strengthen the Primary Health Care Commitments, how to include the effective implementation of Primary Health Care in Local Health Systems, reorienting its approach towards health promotion and prevention with family and community participation and effective accessibility of services for all.

Domestic violence, and not exclusively violence against women, is associated with a set of beliefs and values generating a tolerant environment in which this type of violence is often accompanied by the ignorance of individuals rights provided by the law. A good proportion of persons subjected to domestic violence, women and men alike, know about the existence of a law protecting victims of domestic violence and sanctioning the aggressor.
This session will discuss the different categories of domestic violence such as psychological, physical, social, economic and sexual violence that occurs within the family, with a clear and comprehensive definition of domestic violence and the ways to counteract domestic violence.

Two major areas - violence and poverty - continue to be major obstacles to gender equality worldwide. Gender gaps in access to and control of resources, in economic opportunities, in power and political voice are widespread. But gender equality is essential to poverty reduction. Women's economic empowerment, participation in decision-making, access to a variety of assets, all closed linked to most of MDGs, including financial, social, and human assets as well as infrastructure and technology tools are fundamental.
This session will discuss the concept that gender equality is not a goal in its own right, but an essential ingredient for achieving all the other MDGs. Some reflection will be made on concrete mechanisms to strengthen domestic policies that aim to achieve gender and social equity by analyzing existing differences between women and men and by pointing out opportunities to overcome such inequalities, including the formulation of gender-responsive global policies.

HIV/AIDS impact on the family has many faces. The main problems, such as bereavement (almost 20 million of children in the world have lost both of their parents due to AIDS-related deaths), diseases of parents and siblings, negative impact on family economical status, strongly influence on familiar life.
The sixth Millennium Development Goal is combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and this goal cannot be achieved without effective, evidence-based measures. In order to be effective, prevention should take into account cultural and social context of families and many other factors.
This session will discuss family-oriented prevention strategies, which ought to be designed and implemented with an active participation of all family members, as well as work on improving the accessibility of already existing HIV/AIDS prevention and care services.
Another important issue is monitoring and evaluation, which should form an integral part of all actions and policies, and later it should be a fundament for newly designed activities.

29/11/2007– Thursday

Families live at local level. Local development is the reflection of the individual and family level of development. Local authorities and local actors are in the core of the accomplishments to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Families are the direct beneficiaries of the local authorities policies and investments, specially in the basic public services such as housing, health, education, public transportation, communication, sanitation, energy and clean water.
This session will discuss how to empower families, communities and local authorities to develop strong partnerships to provide a better level of live to all families.

To reach sustainable development and the MDGs by 2015 is a complex process that requires the participation of many different players. No country or organization can do it alone. The development of strong and prosperous societies requires cooperation and networks of governments, international organizations, civil society, private sector and donors.
This session will discuss how to accelerate the process of forging global partnerships in the context of local development and how to engage all societies' stakeholders to address the challenges involved and realize the benefits for all.