DOHA: The inaugural Annual Conference on Family Research and Policy will begin today at the National Convention Centre (QNCC), under the theme ‘The Arab Family in an Age of Transition: Challenges and Resilience’, seeking to promote research on the family in the Arab world and also strives to generate evidence to inform family policies that promote the wellbeing of families.
The Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation in collaboration with the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) — a social scientific survey research initiative of Qatar University — will host the conference.
The two-day conference will feature panel discussions and parallel sessions along with presentations highlighting the themes of the conference through selected papers.
The conference will start with a welcome address by Noor Al Malki Al Jehani, Executive Director of DIFI and Dr Darwish Al Emadi, Director of The Social & Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University, followed by an opening session on ‘Production of knowledge on the Family in the Arab Countries: challenges, opportunities and the way forward.’
The opening panel discussion session will explore the broad challenges impeding family research in the Arab region; the lack of impetus and constraints, both governmental and societal, facing academics who attempt to carry out research on the Arab family.
It will also highlight the disparity between the vital role of the family in Arab society juxtaposed against the lack of incentive to spearhead research that could provide a foundation to guide family policy.
This should address the challenges facing families in the modern day.
The second day of the conference will focus on the role of state policies on family formation and stability. The Peninsula
