On the one hand, citizens in different groups: age, gender, social and income levels expect to live in health physically, mentally and socially and to make sure that their children will have an even higher standard of living than themselves.

On the other hand, policymakers and executives dealing with women, family and children’s issues are highly center-oriented, limited to dealing with specific sectors and utilizing a top-down, uniform approach in identifying, prioritizing, seeking effective solutions and making timely interventions. Simultaneously, they are struggling with constraints concerning an agile and flexible workforce and an insufficient budget.

Overall, they are incapable of scientific and sustainable access to various aspects of family concerns. However, the findings of sociological knowledge suggest that the most cost-effective and efficient way to approach the identification process as well as the fundamental solution to social issues, including family affairs in Iran today, is to create a permanent platform for direct and tolerant face-to-face, modest, and reasoned dialogue among various social groups.

Local and neighborhood-wide ranging dialogue among parents and children, husbands and wives, educators and children, teachers and students, the elderly and young is a necessity. In such circumstances, the creation of appropriate mechanisms for national family dialogue is a crucial first step.

The purpose of this innovative, dialogue-centric initiative is to train capable facilitators at the national and provincial levels. They must familiarize themselves with the sociological insights associated with participatory problem-solving in identifying and prioritizing family-related issues in the context of local realities.

A total of 33 facilitators at level one and 990 facilitators at level two have been trained in the implementation of the project in 31 of Iran’s provinces. As a result of this collaborative dialogue, 33 implementation documents have been prepared to date for 33 cities on vital issues that families are dealing with in their discussions. This undertaking is currently being implemented in 24 cities.

Establishing an International Center of Excellence on Family Dialogue

On the basis of this national experience, Iran can serve as an International Center of Excellence on Family Dialogue with support from UN Agencies and thus be enabled to share this experience at both regional and international levels. This center can receive experts and trainers to design training networks/ modules for interpersonal communicative skills focusing on family. The center can also serve as a platform for the exchange of experiences, best practices and examples.

The main objectives are: strengthening systematic dialogue regarding family issues, both within and outside families. At the local community level, this cohort will have the tools for overcoming existing social problems and hopefully be enabled to achieve spontaneous self-assessment and self-reform. Holding international seminars on family dialogue in order to share Iran’s experience in this field and convening workshops with the purpose of gaining familiarity with the requisite values and facilitation skills, will prove to be a valuable experience for all concerned.