Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend

Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ)
Alexanderstr. 3, D-10178 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 20655-0, (0)3018 555-0, Fax: +49 (0)3018 555-4400
E-Mail: poststelle@bmfsfj.bund.de, Internet: www.bmfsfj.de

Bonn Office
Rochusstr. 8-10, D-53123 Bonn Tel.: +49 (0)228 9300, Fax: +49 (0)3018 555-2221

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth is responsible for the following policy sectors of the Federal Government:

Family Affairs

• develops family benefits (child allowance, education allowance, advance alimony payments, maternity protection),
• ensures that family interests are defended in all policies of the Federal Government (e. g. in tax laws, housing allowances, old-age pension insurance, etc.),
• creates better conditions for shared parental responsibilities of fathers and mothers (parental leave, education allowance, family-friendly working environment, day-care facilities for children),
• raises and changes public awareness through models that strengthen, among other things, the role of fathers
• in favour of non-violent education
• to prevent poverty,
• supports the institutions of family services (family associations, family education, family counselling, self-help organisations, leisure-time and holiday planning),
• sponsors research on the situation and development of families.

• launches model projects to help senior citizens to live independently, both men and women, in society and to provide high-quality assistance and care for the elderly,
• improves the overall legal conditions e. g. through the Old-age Nursing Act and the Nursing Home Act,
• initiates research projects designed to improve the decision-making basis in policies on senior citizens in view of demographic change,
• supports European and international co-operation on a governmental level, as well as with associations and organisations defending the interests of senior citizens,
• sponsors senior citizens’ organisations that support the elderly in defending their interests and advocates solidarity between generations.

• has lead responsibility in drafting federal laws to enforce gender equality and has an influence on draft bills of other Federal Ministries to the extent that they affect women’s or gender equality issues,
• develops programmes and initiatives to ensure equality of women in politics, society and at work, and to reduce violence against women,
• conducts research and model projects and publishes their outcomes,
• sponsors and supports women’s organisations and nation-wide networks in the field of legal equality,
• provides impetus for the implementation of the gender mainstreaming concept in the general routines of the Federal Ministries to ensure that the issue of equality of women and men is taken into account in every project of the Federal Government,
• chairs the Federal Government and Länder working group to combat domestic violence against women and the national working group on trafficking in women.

• has lead responsibility for existing federal laws, e. g. Book VIII of the Social Code (Child and Youth Services Act) and the Youth Protection Act,
• defends, as a cross-sectional responsibility and in close contact with other Federal Ministries, the Länder and municipal authorities as well as youth welfare services, the interests of children and young people in all policy sectors, in particular in the field of education, health and the labour market,
• supports and sponsors inter-regional and national voluntary organisations of child and youth welfare in their diversity of values, contents, methods and working processes,
• contributes towards developing and implementing European youth programmes,
• commissions independent experts to provide information on the situation of young people in Germany and sponsors research projects in this context,
• uses evaluations of model projects and their outcome to further develop child and youth services, thus providing evidence of their effectiveness.

• is responsible for the legislation enshrined in the Conscientious Objection Act and the Act on Alternative Civilian Service, and is involved in bills that may affect conscientious objection or alternative civilian service,
• develops structures in which this mandatory service is enforced on a nation-wide level,
• exercises technical, legal and administrative supervision of the Federal Agency for Alternative Civilian Service (Bundesamt für Zivildienst) which is responsible for the recognition, drafting and counselling of conscripts as well as the recognition and support of organisations where alternative civilian service can be served,
• manages co-operation with associations of voluntary welfare organisations that provide the bulk of jobs for conscientious objectors,
• regulates, among other things, monetary and in-kind remuneration, medical welfare services, subsistence benefits, family visits of conscientious objectors and their further education.

• promotes the work of welfare organisations, as well as a number of other social associations and organisations at Federal level,
• supports nation-wide infrastructures and forms of national recognition of voluntary civic commitment,
• promotes research on voluntary social commitment,
• advocates the sponsoring and further development of the Voluntary Social Service Year or the Voluntary Ecological Service Year as alternative civilian service, and is responsible for further developing the legal framework for alternative civilian service.