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Ailyn Agonia
DOHA
THE Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), along with various international civil society organisations has urged governments, national and international organisations, academic and research institutions and donors to support families, parents and caregivers everywhere. This came in a statement unveiled during a meeting held at St Regis Doha on Monday.
The proponents of the 'Civil Society Statement on Parenting', which will be presented during the two-day DIFI International Conference 2018 being held from October 23 to 24, includes the International Federation of Family Development (IFFD), World Family Organization, International Federation for Home Economics, Focus on the Family Malaysia, Investing in Children and their Societies, Africa Fatherhood Initiative, Ngala Parenting with Confidence, European Large Families Confederation and Parents Forum.
"Parenting should be a priority policy for government, a priority for civil societies and it should also be a priority for research, said DIFI Executive Director Noor al Malki al Jehani during the civil society organisations' meeting organised by DIFI in partnership with IFFD.
"Parenting has always been a very important topic, but we are not satisfied with the amount of work being put in this field, especially in this region where parenting is taken for granted. We believe parenting is very important today as it is not the same like before. This is something that we all need to work on. This is why we provided a grant in our region for a research on parenting," the DIFI chief added.
The Civil Society Statement on Parenting advocates for adoption of policies that would enable work-family balance through accessible and good quality childcare and initiatives to promote the equal sharing of household responsibilities, including unpaid care work, between men and women.
It also endorses investing in parenting education programmes and empowering parents and caregivers to continue to build on their good practices. Similarly, it suggests making the wellbeing of parents, children and other caregivers' explicit objectives of parenting policies and programmes and calls for recognition of the contribution and responsibility of men to families.
Recognising the valuable contribution of grandparents to parenting, investing in research on families and parenting and creating an enabling environment for meaningful contributions of civil society organisations in the designing, implementation and monitoring of family policies and programmes are also covered in the powerful statement.
"Each one of us has different aspects, different activities, different approaches and different ways of doing things, but we are all together in this important matter: how to make parenting work around the world," IFFD Director of Communication Ignacio Socias commented.
The meeting highlighted the role of parenting in contributing to sustainable development, while improving education and health outcomes. It featured two sessions on 'Sharing of Experiences and Exchange on Promoting Parenting Support at National and Regional Levels' and on 'Introducing Civil Society Statement on Parenting'.
