The Portuguese Observatory of Family Responsible Municipalities organized on the 26th of January its annual event to distinguish 95 municipalities as family-friendly, in the city of Coimbra. 56 of these municipalities also received the diploma as new members of the European Network of Family Friendly Municipalities, promoted by ELFAC.
The “Observatório das Autarquias Familiarmente Responsáveis (OAFR)” delivered, in Coimbra, 95 green flags of “Autarchy Family Responsible”, a number that grew 13%, compared to the 84 entities awarded last year, and 145 joined the project. At the event, a new distinction was announced from 2023, of the 3 most innovative measures of the last 3 years. See the list of distinguished municipalities here .
The announcement of the new distinction was made by Rosário Carneiro, member of the scientific commission of the OAFR: from 2023, in addition to the distinction of the flags to the Family Responsible Municipalities, the OAFR will elect the 3 most innovative measures, implemented in the national municipalities, in the last 3 years.
Nuno Moita, Representative of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities and also Mayor of Condeixa-a-Nova, referred to the importance “of having conditions for Portuguese families to stay in the places where they want to live, where they feel happy and comfortable and where have quality of life”.
Rita Mendes Correia, APFN leader, also left a word of thanks to the mayors “not only for their enthusiasm and growing participation in this initiative, but above all for the work that this initiative demonstrates, promotes and reveals in favor of Portuguese families”.
With the participation of ELFAC, the event also awarded diplomas to the 56 Portuguese municipalities that joined the European Network of Family Friendly Municipalities.
Regina Maroncelli, President of ELFAC, highlighted that “the pandemic, the energy crisis and war are emergencies that require priority, and there can be no greater joy for a mayor than having contributed to a place where it is pleasant to live, work, have children and age. Where it’s good to come back, a place we don’t want to leave.” Raul Sanchez, secretary general of ELFAC, also stressed that “the demographic winter does not guarantee the replacement of generations and leads to the decline of the entire economic system and of social and personal well-being”, highlighting “we need new public policies that put families at the center”.
The Observatory’s survey
The OAFR was created in 2008 by the Portuguese Association of Large Families and its main objectives are to monitor, reward and disseminate the best practices of Portuguese municipalities in terms of family responsibility for families in general.
Having the Millennium bcp Foundation as its Main Sponsor, it is the only Observatory that evaluates local policies with this scope: territorial coverage and evaluated areas.
Coimbra leads in the districts with the most awarded municipalities (15) and participants (16) in the Observatory survey. The Lisbon district is in 2nd place with 11 distinctions, followed by the Aveiro district (9); Santarém (8); Braga (7) and Faro, Guarda and Porto with 6 municipalities each.
It should be noted that six municipalities have repeated the OAFR distinction for 14 editions: Angra do Heroísmo, Cantanhede, Torres Novas, Torres Vedras, Vila de Rei and Vila Real.
Of the 145 municipalities that participated in the survey by the Observatory of Family-Responsible Local Authorities, 116 (80%) make the Family Water Tariff available to families; 118 (82%) Social Water Tariff and 116 (80%) Family IMI.
Board meeting of ELFAC
The ELFAC Board members took advantage of this event to hold a working meeting at the headquarters of the Portuguese Large Families Association in Lisbon. They worked on the objectives, strategy and activities for 2023.
