This COFACE position paper outlines a comprehensive, family-centred framework for preventing poverty and mitigating social exclusion, structured around a threetiered approach – primary (universal), secondary (targeted), and tertiary (crisis) prevention – and supported by four essential pillars:
- adequate Resources (R),
- accessible Services (S),
- Time sovereignty (T), and
- integrated Governance (G).
The paper argues that, to address the multidimensional nature of poverty, effective prevention strategies should operate to dismantle policy silos and foster multisectoral coordination.
Not all households are in the same financial situation nor possess the same resilience characteristics. Families, as structural units, shape poverty dynamics through their composition, internal organisation, and the solidarity bonds they uphold. Their resilience or vulnerability, meanwhile, intersects with broader institutional systems.
To effectively address poverty and social exclusion, policies must adopt a familycentred lens, recognising households as interdependent systems where vulnerabilities intersect and compound across generations. A narrow focus on individuals risks obscuring the relational dynamics of poverty – how precarity transfers between family.
This position paper aims to serve as a broader reference document for COFACE activities, providing a coherent conceptual foundation for the interdependency between single policy areas impacting families. By framing poverty prevention as a complex challenge requiring layered, multidisciplinary interventions, the paper aims to inform EU and national strategies highlighting actionable solutions.
This position paper was submitted to the EU as part of the public consultation on the future European Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Read the full position paper here
