Are Member States doing enough for family well-being? The OECD answers

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development recently published a report entitled ’doing better for families’ (chapter 1. It also publishes a series of key indicators and key data related to the issue.

It looks at the different ways in which families are supported in OECD countries (eg spending, impact of the crisis, parental leave, maternity leave, chidcare, poverty) and assesses how family patterns have changed in OECD countries.

Against this background, the OECD makes a few recommendations:

 Provide better public benefits for families.
 Help families combine work and care commitments, through an integrated set of leave, care and workplace support for parents and young children.
 Design parental leave systems that encourage more fathers to take and share leave and promote their engagement with homecare responsibilities.
 Start investing in family policies during the early years and sustain investment throughout childhood.
 Ensure high-quality childcare services linked to improving cognitive development, especially for children from poor households.

These recommendations are in line with the European Charter on Health Equity that EPHA promotes and encourages to sign up to, and presented during the EPHA Annual Conference 2011.

This report complements the bianualEuropean Commission 2010 Demography report.

As a follow-up, on the 2nd and 3rd of May, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, gathered ministers of social affairs to discuss the social impact of the global economic crisis and what governments can do to promote gender equality, support children and families, and improve pension systems.

 Results of the meeting

EPHA related articles

 EPHA Briefing Paper on Health Inequalities
 Eurochild report on how crisis affects future generations in Europe
 WHO releases 2010 World Health Report & report on health inequalities in urban areas
 Tackling the wider determinants of health : effective policy change
 First interim report on social determinants of health and the health divide in the WHO European Region