Abstract
Everywhere, we find examples of excellent social development; we also find the fingerprints of social workers. UNICEF’s report on the countries with the best child nutrition cites Cuba as leading the world. In Cuba, social workers are responsible for 6-month reports on child well-being, which influence local government spending. Costa Rica has reduced multidimensional poverty by 42% in the past 2 years, which is a result of social-work-led initiatives that support community self-led social development. The economy of Bangladesh is slowly rising after social workers played a key role in ensuring workers’ rights are protected. The list of achievements goes on in every country.
Many of these findings are illuminated in the reports of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, which provide source material for governments and UN agencies and act to inspire further actions locally and internationally. It can be confidently stated that the Global Agenda process is a remarkable and significant success.
The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development started in 2010, when 3000 social work representatives and social development professionals came together to set the priorities for the profession until 2020. Now in 2019, the three global bodies that started the Global Agenda have opened new rounds of consultation that will set the themes and priorities for the period 2020–2030.
Learning from the first 10 years of the Global Agenda has demonstrated the powerful force of social work and also some challenges that can be addressed as the profession transitions into the next period. One of the identified considerations is how to bring the lived experience of people who are transforming their environments and communities to create better places to live, which makes the vision of the Global Agenda real. Another challenge is to integrate the Global Agenda themes so that they are understood as a combined holistic approach rather than stand-alone themes. There is also a need to absorb and respond to social issues that were unforeseen at the time of setting the original themes. It has also been identified that processes need to be developed that make the key Global Agenda messages relevant to the practice contexts of social workers in countries in which government or agency policy does not recognize their role as facilitators of transformational social development.
In the current consultation process, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) want to harness the energy and passion of social workers, people of lived experience, civil society and partners in overcoming these and other challenges. We want to create global dialogue both within and from outside of the profession. Our aim is to build on the past successes and further the social work contributions for the realization of human, social and environment rights, where diversity is celebrated and respected and sustainability of the future is assured.
To participate in the consultation processes, see the websites of the IFSW (www.ifsw.org), IASSW (www.iassw-aiets.org) and ICSW (www.icsw.org).