the family from disintegration and safeguard the interests of the children. The family Judge intervenes in the context of reconciliation between the spouses. If divorce is inevitable, he takes urgent measures pertaining to matters of housing, allowance, child care and visiting, in consideration of the interests of the small children and of the imperatives of their protection and guarantee of their future. 426. Tunisia has adopted a volontarist programme of birth control aimed at promoting a stable familiy. The « National Family Planning Office », created in 1971 and which took the name of « National Family and Population Office » (ONFP) in 1984, contributes actively to the realization of Tunisia’s demographic policy and to the drawing up of programmes of action for the development of the family. Basic health services for families have also been created throughout Tunisian territory in order to provide the necessary care for the good health of the mother and the child and especially to engage in preventive action for the family. This policy earned the ONFP its selection by the « United Nations Population Fund » (UNFPA) as a centre of excellence in the area of reproductive health. 427. In the effort to protect the acquisitions of the Tunisian family and to promote its rights, the post of Minister Delegate in the Office of the Prime Minister, responsible for Women’s Affairs and the Family, had been created in 1993. This structure became, in 2004, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, of the Family, of Childhood and Elderly Persons. 428. Two Action Plans in favour of the family had been adopted: the first in 1996 is in line with the implementation of the IXth Development Plan (1997-2001). The second, adopted in 2002, is based on the following four major points: the relations within the family, the socialization of the generations, the well being of the family and the management of the family’s income. The mechanisms for the application of this Plan are: • An Information, Education and Communication Strategy (I.E.C); • A mechanism for the observation and monitoring of the conditions of the Tunisian family; • The training of speakers in the mediation of family matters. 429. Furthermore, the family has benefited from other programmes targeting families with specific needs such as the Social Promotion Programme, the National Aid Programme for needy families. Besides, the emigrant family has been the object of special attention on the part of the political leaders, consisting of measures targeting the youth, the women and the single parent families headed by the spouses whose husbands have emigrated. -The Social Promotion Programme 430. The national social promotion strategy in Tunisia reposes on: • The improved targeting of the poor populations through the use of the poverty index established since 1996 and decentralized in 1998, for the selection of families and individuals eligible for the different programmes and permanent or occasional social aid; • The putting in place of appropriate mechanisms for the improved coordination between the various actors and the programmes of permanent and occasional aid, of health, housing and development programmes such as integrated rural and urban development 92