New York, 3rd February 2011.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations has decided, during its annual meeting of 2011 held during these days, to unanimously approve the application for reclassification of the consultative status from special to general by the International Federation for Family Development, so that only the final decision by the Council is left to make the new status official. It is a truly significant step forward in the increasing collaboration between the Federation and UN.
Special consultative status, which IFFD had been granted in 1999, meant the possibility of taking part in an active way and contributing to the work of United Nations the civil society perspective in topics related to family. As the former Secretary General said, “We live in an era in which international affairs are no longer dominated by States as the sole actors. The participants include non-governmental organizations”.
However, United Nations reserves for a minority of those NGOs -just below 5% of them at present- a different classification that allows them to participate in that task in a more complete way, provided they fulfil three requirements that makes them deserve it – to be spread worldwide (IFFD currently operates in 58 countries on the five continents), to show enough financial and professional stability (we have been working for more than 30 years) and, above all, to deal through its activities with all topics of the Economic and Social Council agenda (in our Family Enrichment courses family takes shape as the true “School of Human Rights”, as our last International Family Congress in Valencia has expressed).
As established in Resolution 1996/31 of ECOSOC, which regulates consultative relationships, this step means that an Organization can “have substantive and sustained contributions to make to the achievement of the objectives of the United Nations” and is “closely involved with the economic and social life of the peoples of the areas they represent” and “whose membership, which should be considerable, is broadly representative of major segments of society in a large number of countries in different regions of the World”. Also, this resolution grants to those organizations several specific attributions: “propose to the Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations that the Committee request the Secretary-General to place items of special interest to the organizations in the provisional agenda of the Council”; they are also “entitled to present orally to the Council, as appropriate, an introductory statement of an expository nature” and, “in the course of the discussion of the item before the Council, an additional statement for purposes of clarification.”

Cristina Napolitano (Delegate in UN), Jim Morgan (Chairman), Marina Robben (President) and Karel Philps (Vicepresident for Europe).

Several members of IFFD’s board that were in New York during these days have confirmed their will to “contribute even more to the work of United Nations, with their know-how and experience, the voice of so many thousands of families from all over the world, in a constructive way that makes easier the building of a more human and fair society, avoiding divisions and conflicts.” For that, they have recalled the Final Declaration of the Congress in Valencia, and especially its proposal regarding “promote the integration of a family perspective into policy-making at the national, regional and international levels” and “support family research and diagnostic studies.”

Activities in Family Enrichment Programs started in the 1960s with aid programmes for parents based on the case method and applying participative methodology.
After more than 30 years of experience in those courses, IFFD was set up in Orlando (Florida, USA), during the 14th International Family Congress (January 1998).
We currently operate in 58 countries on the five continents:

 Newsletter about IFFD (English Version)

Videos(YouTube Channel).