COFACE member, the Association of Germany Family organisations, published an open letter on 12th March 2025 together with other organisations, directed at the federal chairpersons, general secretaries and the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag of CDU/CSU and SPD as well as the negotiators in the areas of family, children and youth, poverty and social affairs.
The essence of the message: Give high priority to implementing the European Child Guarantee in Germany
Open Letter
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are pleased that you are addressing the issues of families, children and (child) poverty in the negotiations for the formation of a coalition.
Combating child poverty is a central social task of our time. We hope that you also consider it unacceptable that for decades around a quarter of children and young people in our country have been affected by poverty, social exclusion and their disadvantageous consequences. Child and youth poverty is not a temporary problem, but permanently worsens the chances of those affected to escape poverty in the course of their lives. This calls into question the promise of participation for all citizens in a democratic society. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also obliges parties to enable all children to grow up in a healthy environment (Articles 26 and 27 UNCRC). There is therefore an urgent need to give the fight against child and youth poverty the necessary priority and to reform the existing system of poverty reduction.
The European Child Guarantee is a valuable initiative to support children and young people affected and threatened by poverty and the risk of social exclusion. The aim is “to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing access to a range of important services for children in need, and thus also to contribute to the protection of children’s rights by combating child poverty and promoting equal opportunities.”
The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), which is responsible for this, has set up a committee for the implementation of the corresponding National Action Plan (NAP), in which the signatories from civil society are participating. We welcome this approach in principle and at the same time emphasize that efforts will only be successful if they are embedded in a change of structural factors to reduce poverty. These include monetary benefits, a social and educational infrastructure that is easily accessible, and the design of the labor market.
We would like the future government to take the recently published first progress report as an opportunity to continue working on the implementation of the NAP and at the same time to correct the weaknesses of the NAP, which have been widely criticized, such as the lack of ambition or innovation.
We appeal to you to
- present an overall strategy for combating child poverty in Germany, according to which political action in the interests of children and young people is aligned and appropriate budgetary resources are made available for the implementation of measures within the framework of this strategy;
- formulate specific goals in the course of updating the NAP;
- provide the implementation process with the necessary competencies and appropriate resources:
- The National Coordinator should continue to be at least at state secretary level.
- The responsible ministers should regularly discuss poverty prevention and develop proposals for the cabinet as a whole in a permanent government body and in exchange with children and young people.
An assessment of the progress of implementation to date and further proposals for its improvement can be found in the joint statement of the civil society actors involved.
Among other things, the importance of high-quality participation of children and young people, in which the target groups concerned are appropriately represented, is emphasized, as well as the data and information along the indicators of child guarantee.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have and wish you every success in your work for the benefit of children and their families.
With best regards,
German National Association for Family Organizations (AGF)
Working Group for Child and Youth Services – AGJ
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Federal Parents’ Representation of Children in Day-care Centers (BEVKi)
Federal Association of Disabled and Chronically Ill Parents (bbe)
German Society for Child and Youth Medicine (DGKJ)
German Society for Social Paediatrics and Youth Medicine (DGSPJ)
German League for the Child
German Child Protection League (DKSB)
German Children’s Aid Organization (DKHW)
Cooperation Network for Youth Social Work
National Coalition Germany
Save the Children Germany
UNICEF Germany
Claudia Kitel, German Instiute for Human Rights, Monitoring Body UN Child Rights Convention (appointed to the NAP Committee as an individual)
The authors are members of the “NAP Committee” for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Germany.
See further information here.
