Int’l academicsand ‘Family is key to fighting poverty’

Policy-makers and economists need not look further than the home. As it turns out, the key to addressing poverty is the family.This was one of the main conclusions of the 2018 Annual Symposium of the International Academy for the Study of the Jurisprudence of the Family (IASJF), which was hosted this year by the University of Asia and the Pacific, which also marks half a century. We have learned that family is the key to the fighting against poverty and to foster and promote prosperity, said Stefano Troiano, current IASJF president during his closing remarks on June 21, Thursday.Family-poverty linkTroiano, a full professor of private law at the Università degli studi in Verona, Italy, also stressed that the family is vital to attaining true intergenerational justice. According to its website, the IASJF is an independent academic society which seeks to promote thoughtful consideration and discussion of the foundations of the family, including marriage, parenting, and extended family relations. This year, the group’s annual symposium focused on the theme Family and Poverty. Population control in PHMeanwhile, in his keynote address Solid Family Life and Sustainable Educationand A Major Factor for Poverty Reduction , Bernardo Villegas, PhD debunked the conventional wisdom that a big population equals poverty. …There is every evidence that the Philippines was right in combatting all the efforts to introduce population control. You will always find [in studies] the Philippines is fortunate to have a growing and young population, said Villegas, who obtained his economics doctorate degree from Harvard University and is one of the drafters of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. (M)althusian theory has been proven false time and time again, he stressed.Villegas called on the government to invest, instead on quality education to pave the way for inclusive growth. …More than spending on contraceptives, spend on the quality of public eductation, he said.This year’s IASJF annual symposium gathered delegates from the U.S., Chile, Spain, Slovenia, and Brazil, among others.