Doha international family institute hosts second annual conference on Family Research and Policy

Doha International Family Institute’s (DIFI) second annual conference on Family Research and Policy starts tomorrow at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) in Doha.

The two-day conference, entitled ‘The Impact of Wars and Conflicts on Arab Families’, brings together researchers and policymakers from around the world to discuss the role of research and public policies in promoting the well-being and protection of Arab families.

The first day of the conference will provide participants with a unique platform to address the impact of conflicts on family formation and breakdown and social and economic development, as well as a country’s demographic structure in terms of fertility, mortality and migration.

Noor Al Malki Al-Jehani, DIFI’s Executive Director, emphasised the crucial role of the conference in informing future policies. “Families in the Arab world are under tremendous threat due to the ongoing conflicts in many parts of the region. By hosting this conference, we would like to shed light on the short-term and long-term impacts of wars and conflicts on the family unit and on men, women and children. We hope to identify the policies that are needed to respond to the new challenges,” Al-Jehani said.

DIFI’s commitment to further research on Arab families, and to promote policies that enhance the protection and wellbeing families and their members, prompted the institute to join efforts with Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN), the conference’s official media partner.

As part of the DIFI-AJMN partnership, the first day of the conference will see three Al Jazeera correspondents share their on-the-ground experiences in war and conflict zones in the Arab region, providing policymakers with unparalleled insight and tangible evidence of the human tragedies and challenges facing affected families.

Hamdi Al-Bokari, Senior Producer at Al Jazeera Channel, will speak about the conflict in Yemen while Mohammad AlNajjar, Head of Social Media at AJMN, will elaborate on the ongoing war in Aleppo. Amer Lafi, a correspondent at Al Jazeera, will give a firsthand account of the refugee crisis on the Syrian – Turkish border, as well as the humanitarian crisis in Libya.

The second day of the conference will feature a session on the role of non-governmental organisations in providing humanitarian relief and support for people and communities affected by wars and conflicts.

Participants will look at how the changing nature of both conflict and humanitarian relief has altered the role of NGOs, from the traditional role of mitigating the effects of conflict, to performing new roles including conflict prevention and peace building.

DIFI is a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), and aims to support research programmes, policies and social outreach to promote the development of Arab families.