Involved fatherhood is critical to gender equality and child development, reveals first global fatherhood report

The first-ever State of the World’s Fathers (SOWF) report has been presented today at the European Parliament under the framework of the global MenCare fatherhood campaign at a roundtable discussion organised by the S&D Group and Make Mothers Matter. This report is a landmark analysis of fatherhood that draws evidence from hundreds of studies covering all countries in the world with available data.

The SOWF report is intended to provide a periodic, data-driven snapshot of the state of men’s contributions to parenting and care giving globally by addressing four issues related to fatherhood: unpaid care work in the home; maternal, newborn, and child health and sexual and reproductive health and rights; men’s care giving and violence against children and women; and child development.

On Juncker’s Investment Plan – Investing in social progress, human capital, health and education is urgent

Press Statement of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children  on the occasion of the European Parliament’s adoption of the European Fund for Strategic Investments. (The Investment Plan is part of the Commission’s new approach based on three pillars of structural reforms, fiscal responsibility and investment. The Investment Plan aims to unlock public and private investments in the real economy of at least € 315 billion over the next three years (2015-2017). To provide this additional financing a new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is being set up based on a proposal by the European Commission.)

Wikiprogress Online Consultation on Youth Well-being: Summary Report

The first Wikiprogress Online Consultation was a big success and the organisers thank all of you who took part. The consultation had around 300 registered participants and over 500 comments. As you may all know EPA was a partner in the consultation and we are very happy that the crucial role of parents was highlighted during it.

A summary report was produced, summarising some of the key points made in the consultation, and can be downloaded here.

The consultation findings and aspects of Youth Well-being more generally were discussed at a special session at the OECD Forum in Paris on 2 June.  Marianna Georgallis, Policy and Advocacy Officer from the European Youth Forum (one of the consultation partners) outlined some of the main issues and led the discussion.  The session, titled “What Does Youth Well-Being Really Mean?” was attended by around 50 people from the Forum, with many youth participants, and there was a lively discussion around the questions raised by the consultation.

Country-Specific Recommendations fail children - Urgent call to Action

Press Release of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children[i] ahead of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) 18-19 June 2015 and in view of their expected approval of the Country-Specific Recommendations, as a reaction to the 2015 National Reform Programmes

MenCare for active paternal engagement in child care - Newsflesh from Bulgaria

About an year ago a consortium of 10 Bulgarian NGOs - our Bulgarian member, Roditeli being one of them - launched a MenCare campaign in support of active male engagement in child care. For the very first time a national fatherhood campaign is organized in Bulgaria. After a year of intensive work and discovering the uncovered path, the project team was pleasantly surprised by the first positive results. "To be a Dad" has developed into one of the strongest viral campaign (without any budget for advertising) for the last 10 years in Bulgaria. The work team was awarded with the prestigious award for the Bulgarian non-governmental sector "Project of the Year - 2014", followed with the special prize "Father of the Year Award - 2015". For a period of year and a half more than 100 organizations are involved as supporters of the campaign. What are the reasons for this success? How the campaign was able to reach so many families and touch emotionally Bulgarian men? What is the secret? Get ideas in support for your MenCare campaigns by reading the attached articles (they give insights about our approach for social change and explain our path to the success).

Policy debate on intergenerational learning - report on the EUCIS-LLL event 31 March 2015

Population ageing will continue with accelerating pace in the next decades. Today half of the population is 40 years old or above while in 2060 half of the population will be aged 48 years or above. These trends require some considerable societal adaptations regarding work, family life and social protection. Many European practices, as well as research, show that intergenerational learning can be a strong boost for improving learning take up and attainment as well as a sense of solidarity. It is about learning together and learning from each other, and therefore it is an effective way to address a number of issues such as building active communities, promoting citizenship and addressing inequality. For instance, family learning should be integrated in educational institutions’ strategies to raise young learners’ attainment and to narrow the gap between the lowest and highest achievers. The potential in Europe is huge - being active, healthy and participative well into old age is a realistic prospect for a very large number of citizens. Yet, at the same time, only a small minority of people spend their retirement years on active engagement in continuous labour market participation and community life through voluntary activities and active leisure. This debate was aiming at sharing practices and views on how and why the intergenerational dimension should be mainstreamed in lifelong learning strategies. Participants discussed important related issues, such as how to understand intergenerational solidarity, how to promote active ageing and how to better share good practices. MEP Heinz Becker was hosting the event highlighting the importance of the topic.

Detailed and very colourful report of the event can be read here

School leadership in Europe - Toolkit published as the final outcome of a 4-year project

As the readers of our blog surely know EPA was part of a European network of over 30 partners working on policy recommendations and tools about school leadership for equity and learning, EPNoSL. On 28/29 May 2015 a so-called Peer Learning Activity (PLA) was held in Heraklion, Crete, Greece as the closing event of this project-like network. For EPA the most important outcome of the project is the Toolkit for Equity and Learning that has a separate chapter on stakeholder collaboration.