International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW): Promoting environmental and community sustainability

The International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) reaffirms its commitment to the Global Agenda for Social Work to promote a more just and inclusive society, in partnership with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), and the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW). The Global Agenda intended to engage with the post-2015 development agenda by supporting, influencing and enabling structures and systems to address the root causes of oppression and inequality. Theme three aligns with the focus of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which acknowledges that both people and the planet are important for sustainable development (UN, 2015). These similarities were stressed in the social work response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consultations in 2015 (Dominelli, 2015).

In its commitment to the Global Agenda (IASSW, ICSW and IFSW 2012), IASSW endorses the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for social work and social work education, namely to transform the world to a more ‘just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world in which the needs of the most vulnerable are met’ (United Nations, 2015a: 4).

IASSW seeks to stay abreast of international movements on sustainable development, especially in terms of decisions about climate change. To pursue these goals, it has become an accredited RINGO with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Issues related to sustainability and climate change have had and will continue to have a significant influence on social work and social work education. As stipulated in the Paris Agreement on climate change, IASSW recognises that ‘climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet’, and acknowledges that climate change is a ‘common concern of humankind’ (UN, 2015b: 1). IASSW follows and engages in processes following the Paris agreement, and, through its Committee on Disaster Interventions, Climate Change and Sustainability, IASSW responds to calls for evidence and comments on policy documents that the UNFCCC produces. At the most recent of the UNFCC meetings, the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23), which concluded in Bonn on 18 November 2017, the UNFCCC has succeeded in keeping the process of the Paris Agreement alive by setting up the rules that will be deliberated upon in 2018 in Poland. This move was a step in the right direction. However, many issues remain unresolved and people all over the world are likely to continue to face the effects of climate change, natural disasters and environmental degradation.

IASSW was represented at COP23 by the Chair of its Committee, Lena Dominelli, who also organised its side-event, The Social Dimensions of Climate Change Disasters: Social Work Perspectives and Interventions, which was held in the Fiji Pavilion, on 13 November. COP23 was hosted by Fiji who holds the Presidency until 2018. COP23 ran from 7-18 November 2017 in Bonn, Germany. The speakers at the side event were: Lena Dominelli from Durham University who presented an overview of the endeavours of social work education and practice on climate change issues globally; Julie Drolet from Calgary University at Edmonton, Canada, who spoke about social work with victim-survivors of forest fires; and a video on green social work provided by Nino Zganec of Zagreb University, Croatia, and also president of EASSW, and vice president of IASSW. The event was well received and many questions were posed to the two speakers. A number of these questions focused on a photo provided by Mildred T Mushunje from the University of Harare in Zimbabwe showing how women survived drought which Lena Dominelli had included in her overview of issues covered by social work researchers and academics. Both speakers emphasised the significance of the social dimensions of climate change, and the substantial roles that social work educators, researchers, students and practitioners play in addressing them.

Climate change and its effects for both the earth and in the daily life of people are one of the most discussed topics in the public arena. In her speech during COP23 in Bonn, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized that climate change is an issue which determines the destiny and ‘wellbeing of all of us”. As research indicates, social work educators know that the effects of natural disasters are affecting the world population in a different way. The poor and marginalized such as children, women, older and disabled people, and those displaced by such crises like (im)migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are the most vulnerable. The United Nations Development Program (http://www.adaptation-undp.org/projects/spa-community-based-adaptation-project) underlines that small communities are likely to be the most severely affected by climate change impacts and yet are least equipped to cope and adapt.

The commitment of the 2030 Agenda, ‘to leave no one behind’ (UN, 2015a), is embedded in social work’s human rights framework to promote social and economic equality and human dignity of all peoples. Social work education for sustainable development implies closing the inequality and human development gaps while ensuring that future generations have the same, or even better, opportunities (UN, 2015a). Committed to seeking justice for all, and in particular people vulnerable for social and economic exclusion, requires more than lip service. Such commitment goes beyond what Higgs (2015: 120) refers to as ‘thinking about’ what a fair society would look like, to ‘acting and doing’. Likewise, education in human rights goes beyond merely visibility in the curriculum and knowing about human rights instruments; it requires active engagement and acting on these instruments by advocating for peoples freedoms and rights. Social justice becomes evident in structural social change. In alignment with being a human rights profession, many existing perspectives, models, theories and practices focus on challenging structural injustices, advocating for peoples’ socio-economic rights and influencing policies. However, without a sustainable development focus, social work will remain focused on the social aspects of the environment.

Since its inception, social work emphasized the person in environment and the effects of the natural environment on the health and wellbeing of the population. Jane Addams (1912), in her Settlement House movement, took environmental aspects such as industrial pollution in the community, large amounts of garbage, sanitation, and adequate water supply into consideration and worked on changing urban environmental conditions that led to poverty, illness, and misery. Although social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction between people and their environment (the person-in-environment perspective) the focus is often exclusively on the importance of social relationships and ignoring the natural environment; this is even in the case when social workers operate within an ecological theoretical framework. Coates and Gray (2012) agree that an adequate connection is not yet made between social work and environmental issues, relying instead on an exclusively social interpretation of the person-in-environment principle. There is minimal attention to climate change and environmental degradation in social work teaching, research and practice (Dominelli, 2012).

For social workers to demonstrate their commitment to human rights, it requires a political agenda within a human rights-based framework, and a holistic model which is rooted in social, economic and environmental justice (Dominelli, 2012). Sheedy (2013: 5) observes that some social work students commence their studies claiming no knowledge of politics, or even stating that they have no interest in politics. This standing poses a serious challenge in educating students for policy and advocacy practice to ensure that social workers become active and skilled advocates in policy-making and advocacy (Hoefer, 2012).

Social work responses on both individual (micro practice) and organisational and structural (macro practice) levels are required for sustainable development outcomes that benefit both people and planet. Climate change and disaster interventions require the development of new theories and practices that enhance social workers’ capacities to intervene in such situations (Dominelli, 2012). Social workers have an important role in piloting and building community-based projects to enhance the resilience of communities, and/or the ecosystems on which they rely, in response to climate change impacts. They should become involved with local communities to develop alternative sustainable models of socio-economic development that acknowledge global interdependency and the need to share green technologies (Dominelli, 2012).

IASSW endorses the important role of partnerships in sustainable development. Green social work is a holistic approach focusing on social relationships that brings experts together in partnerships that facilitate thinking differently about people’s relationships between themselves and their respective environments, including social, economic, emotional, spiritual and physical (Dominelli, 2012). In the context of green social work, training in disaster management can be a tool to empower future social workers to become social change agents who actively promote social, economic and environment justice (Chiwara and Lombard, 2018). To ensure environmental and community sustainability, such training should include a policy and research dimension.

IASSW, through its member schools, is engaged in different activities on different levels to promote environmental and community sustainability. Re-thinking social work education is an ongoing activity in developing relevant theories and models that will prepare social work graduates to respond to the impacts of climate change, as well as poverty, structural inequalities, socio-economic disparities, global interdependencies and limited natural resources. Responsive practice includes protecting the environment while promoting the capabilities and resilience of affected communities and their physical environments. In the framework of human rights and respect for human dignity, the voices of people who are affected have to be included in the planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of interventions at all levels – local, national and global.

IASSW regards the development of interdisciplinary alliances as fundamental to the response to the effects of climate change. In partnership with practitioners, organisations and other role players, member schools encourage interactive debates on environmental and community sustainability issues during World Social Work Days, seminars and class room settings. Research and publications have gained momentum providing educators, students, practitioners and also policy makers with knowledge and opportunities to reflect on social workers’ role in relation to climate change and sustainability. Building on Green Social Work (2012) by Lena Dominelli, The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work (2018), edited by Lena Dominelli, and Social Sustainability and Social Work Practice in Asia and the Pacific Rim (2018), edited by Alice Ming Lin Chong and Iris Chi. All three books provide concrete examples that can be inspirational for practice interventions in many different areas of the world. Furthermore, other examples of best practices in social work education and practice, policy and research will be included in the respective regional reports for the third report of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development on the topic, environmental and community sustainability.

In going forward with Theme 3, Promoting environmental and community sustainability, and in preparation for the launch of Theme 4 of the Global Agenda at the Dublin conference in 2018, IASSW reiterates its commitment to the principles which underpin the Global Agenda: