UAE launches Year of Family 2026 with focus on 'Growing in Unity'

ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)

The UAE on Sunday officially launched the Year of Family 2026 under the theme "Growing in Unity," marking the start of a year-long, nationwide campaign to strengthen family relationships, ease barriers to marriage, and embed values of belonging across households.

The launch was accompanied by the release of a national guide that lays out thematic directions and a public-facing framework for action. It builds on the National Family Growth Agenda 2031, announced at the 2025 Annual Government Meetings, and follows a directive by President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to designate 2026 as a year dedicated to supporting families.

The guide defines the Year of Family as a "shared moment of reflection and action", designed to reinforce daily habits that hold families together. Its core message centres on presence and how families grow not through declarations or events, but through everyday gestures of care. 

It urges a return to intergenerational closeness, everyday care, and what it describes as the "quiet fulfilment" that comes from placing others' wellbeing at the centre of life decisions.

The team in charge of the initiative on purpose avoids abstract policy jargon in favour of emotive, culturally rooted storytelling. It speaks of details like a grandmother's chair or an old piece of fabric passed down in homes as symbols of continuity that carry the "scent of days that still live within us."

"Grounded in a shared sense of identity, the Year of Family aims to nurture family closeness, support growth, and help lay the foundations for confident and capable generations," the guide said.

The guide makes space for modern realities. Parents are acknowledged as navigating the fast pace of life, social expectations and pressures to "do everything perfectly". It insists that perfection is not the goal, and that stability is more likely when families are allowed to make mistakes, recalibrate, and listen to each other openly.

"Building on the nation's enduring values of connection and belonging, the Year of Family sheds light on the everyday moments and efforts that strengthen family wellbeing and shape a shared future rooted in authenticity and openness," it added.

The UAE Year Of initiative is overseen by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court, alongside Her Highness Sheikha Mariam bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Court for National Projects.

Roots, Bonds and Branches

The Year of Family agenda is organised around a simple frame that breaks the year into three strands: Roots, Bonds and Branches.

The purpose of this frame, the guide writes, is "to strengthen family bonds and equip families in the UAE to grow with stability and confidence, shaping a future rooted in shared identity and worthy of our children's ambitions."

The text makes clear that the campaign is not about idealised images of family life but about how people live together under real constraints.

Under Roots, the guide calls on families to lean on small, repeatable habits that keep values alive between generations -  from shared meals and phone-free time to basic courtesies that children see and copy. It links those micro-behaviours to wider social norms and to a sense of continuity that expands beyond a single household. Bonds focuses on presence and making "positive interactions more frequent and socially supported." This includes gestures such as checking in on relatives, giving positive reinforcement, listening without interruption, or turning routine tasks into shared activities, as practical ways to widen the social space for family-oriented behaviours.

Branches brings in tools and systems families can rely on when life gets complicated. This includes guidance to help parents and caregivers manage conflict, family-life balance, mental load, financial stress and digital pressures. The aim is to give families not just advice, but clear ways to move forward with confidence.

These priorities are meant to be taken up by institutions across sectors. The guide includes a matrix for designing initiatives, urging entities to identify their target audiences, select relevant tools, whether events, grants, or campaigns, and assess long-term impact across metrics such as reach, engagement and sustainability.

From Agenda to Daily Decisions

At the policy level, the Year of Family is closely linked to the National Family Growth Agenda 2031, presented in November last year, which aims to increase Emirati marriage and birth rates.

The agenda defines family strength as a national development goal and rests on three strategic foundations: encouraging a "family growth mindset", ensuring economic and social support for marriage and parenting, and creating enabling environments that promote cohesion and stability.

To carry that work into practice, the government has set up a national task force bringing together more than 20 federal and local entities. Its mandate is organised around three pathways: a review of policies and programmes that influence family decisions; behavioural work based on interviews with Emirati families across the country; and a reproductive health track that maps current services, identifies gaps, and proposes ways to address them.

In October last year, the Ministry of Family also presented its 2025-2027 strategy as the operational backbone for these goals. During a press conference, Minister of Family Sana bint Mohammed Suhail described the strategy as an investment in people, designed to keep family interests at the centre of government planning.

This approach is rooted in reality, driven by evidence and data, the Family Minister explained, and intended to translate leadership directives into programmes that support Emirati families and strengthen the social fabric.

Among key goals is to make it easier for young people to form families by raising the quality of daily life for parents and children and directing attention to those who face the highest risks. That includes initiatives to relieve financial pressures on young adults, encourage marriage, raise awareness of Emirati social values, and better prepare individuals for family life before they marry.

On the services side, the strategy points to expanded health and psychological support, stronger early education, and more flexible work options to help parents balance care and employment. Vulnerable groups - senior citizens, people of determination, at-risk children, and others - are placed at the front of policy design, with commitments to preventive frameworks that support independence and integration within safe family and community settings.

The ministry also plans to modernise how family policy is designed. A comprehensive family data system is due to give policymakers a clearer picture of needs in different emirates, while a Family and Community Behavioural Insights unit will run diagnostics and design targeted interventions. Family mediation services will be widened, and the "wedding experience" is set to be redesigned to ease costs on young couples and reinforce social bonds rather than competition over spending.

As the UAE marks the Year of Family, these measures sit alongside existing marriage support. Through the Sheikh Zayed Marriage Fund, for example, eligible Emirati men marrying for the first time can receive a one-off payment of Dh70,000 to help with wedding and initial household costs. The grant is limited to couples where both spouses are UAE nationals, comes with age and income thresholds, and is tied to mandatory premarital courses on marital responsibilities, financial planning and family stability.

Applications are filed through an online portal run by the Ministry of Community Empowerment, where couples upload identity documents, salary certificates and bank details. The service is free, and decisions are typically issued within days, turning what could be a lengthy bureaucratic step into a relatively quick process.