Compton Foundation Centennial Professor for the Prevention of Child and Youth Problems, Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA
SB Kamerman BA, MSW, DSW (Doctor of Social Welfare)
Correspondence to: Dr SB Kamerman
Received December 28, 2008
* This is a paper presented in Hong Kong, at the conference on "Strengthening Hong Kong's Families", December 3, 2008 and draws on the Columbia University Clearinghouse on International Developments in Children, Youth and Family Policies (www.childpolicyintl.org), and ongoing research.
Given extensive demographic and social change, there is a search for new policy strategies for enhancing child and family well-being. Family policy, a holistic approach to evaluating social policies affecting children and their families, is one such strategy. Two illustrations of advanced industrialised countries with an explicit family policy are presented along with several new and innovative child and family policy initiatives launched in less developed countries. Together, these may offer possible components of a Hong Kong family policy. An explicit family policy may not be the answer to Hong Kong's concerns about child and family well-being, but making the conditions of children and their families more visible and identifying and assessing the policies affecting them, would help if one goal is to achieve greater policy coherence.
