Wednesday 15 May marks the occasion of the International Day of Families 2013, and as every year, COFACE, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union is organising an event coupled with a book launch to mark this Day.
The book, entitled Fertility rates and population decline: No time for children? includes the latest research from leading international demographers. Their converging views suggest that the world population is set to decline by 2050 and the serious consequences could include slower economic growth, labour shortages, reduced consumption and considerable pressure on women to fill the gaps in the labour market alongside caring for their children and elderly relatives. The book concludes that in future, families may need far more assistance to reconcile work and family life.
Today’s children will be tomorrow’s workforce and therefore maximising every child’s potential to contribute to society will become increasingly important, warns the book. Its co-editors are Professor Ann Buchanan, former Director for the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children at the University of Oxford, and Professor Anna Rotkirch, Director of the Population Research Centre, Väestöliitto, Finland.
COFACE and its member organisations advocate for
accessible, affordable and quality childcare and other services for families,
as well as adequate measures for working parents and carers to reconcile their
work and family life, to be able to have time for and with their children,
especially while they are little. We also hope that 2014 will be designated as
the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life, which would present a
great opportunity to continue this discussion at European level, and striving
for finding viable solutions for these pressing challenges.
/END/
14.5.2013: Investing in children is the
key to Europe’s demographic future! (download pdf)
Events’s page
