International Federation for Family Development

About us

Family experts

Promoting the importance of family life

International Federation for Family Development (IFFD) is an independent, non-profit, international organization dedicated to promoting the importance of family life. Our mission is to help each person discover and live the beauty of family life, while fostering friendships and personal development.

With a presence in 68 countries on five continents, we work in collaboration with a wide network of committed volunteers who provide parenting support and are the largest international civil society organization recognized by the United Nations, focused on strengthening family relationships.

Family Enrichment began in the late 1960s with the development of parenting support programs using the case study method. After 30 years of conducting courses, IFFD was formally founded in 1998. Its headquarters are located in Madrid, Spain.

What we offer

Our Family Enrichment activity consists mainly of support, educational and formation programs for young people, married couples, parents and grandparents. We have been organizing international congresses since 1978. In addition, since 2022, we have been promoting innovative digital projects such as Pause, an online content platform for families.

Our Family Advocacy activity consists mainly in opening lines of communication between countries, academia, international organizations, families and civil society, highlighting the family perspective and child protection in social policies. It contributes to the global debate and encourages commitment to family policies from key venues such as the United Nations and the European Union.

Both IFFD’s global presence and social impact, in addition to its permanent presence at the United Nations, has allowed IFFD to be granted General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

Countries

Continents

Moderators

Volunteers

Inspiring families

Our DNA

We are a Federation of non-governmental, non-denominational, non-profit, independent and privately operated Family Enrichment Centers located in different countries.

We integrate a vast network spanning 68 countries across 5 continents, of with over 7000 dedicated volunteers.

Our mission is to generate dynamics that help every person discover and live the beauty of family life in a friendly environment that promotes personal growth. We empower families worldwide through improved communication and collaboration skills, and our programs do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or country of origin.

Our experience has shown that both parents must learn how to better fulfill their parental role. For this reason, Both parents are called to participate in our programs, so that each can make their own contribution as an individual, as a parent and as a family.

Our programs use the ‘case-study method’. This methodology promotes open dialogue about real-life situations, allowing participants to share their perspectives without imposing their own ideas or dismissing the thoughts of others.

Our moderators are dedicated volunteers who after receiving proper training bring their life experience and skills in facilitating and guiding discussions.

Our activities aim to accompany each person and/or couple in their lifelong learning process. Our parenting courses are targeted to groups of parents with children of the same age group with a main focus on teaching the appropriate parenting skills relevant to that stage of development.

Our professional activities of advocacy aim to integrate a family perspective into international, national, regional and local development agendas through the design, implementation and monitoring of evidence-based laws, policies and programs.

We organize regional and worldwide congresses as well as leadership summits to strengthen our collective identity and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices.

We promote and participate in scientific projects related to the family and other activities aimed at raising awareness and disseminating evidence-based findings impacting the family to enrich our local and international work.