About the meetings:

At a meeting in Paris on 2-3 May 2011, Ministers exchanged views on the serious short- and long-term challenges citizens are facing today and on what they could do to address them.

Session 1: Social policies for the recovery [3]

They discussed the social impact of the global economic crisis and compared approaches to adapt social policy to support the recovery.

Session 2: Doing better for families [3]

Under the broad umbrella of family policies, they discussed good practices in removing barriers to family formation, enhancing the well-being of children, promoting gender equality in employment, and innovative approaches to improve service delivery for vulnerable families.
- Issues paper for discussion [4]
- Background document [5]
- Doing better for families report [6]

Session 3: Intergenerational Solidarity [7]

The final session focused on social policy strategies to balance the needs of different generations, the fiscal and social impact of pension reforms, and caring for children, adults with long-term health conditions and /or disabilities, and for an increasing number of vulnerable older persons.

Policy forum: Tackling inequality [8]

Prior to the social ministerial meeting, a Policy Forum on Tackling Inequality, open to the media, was held on the morning of 2 May 2011 to discuss the trend of high and increasing income inequality in many OECD countries as well as policy approaches to counter this trend.