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. This significantly successful period of the Global Agenda has been an essential voice in proactively setting and fulfilling the Sustainable Developmental Goals, working towards more peaceful and just societies and strengthening the voice of the social work profession.
Now, the social work profession needs to examine new themes and processes to expand the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development for the years 2020 to 2030. From IFSW, we are launching a consultation process, where your input is essential to build a robust and inclusive Global Agenda that meets the real needs of all people. The consultation period will end in July 2020.
Please make your contributions to the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development 2020 – 2030 by filling in the comments box at the bottom of this page.
To see the reports of the Global Agenda from 2010 to 2018 please visit the IFSW Bookstore where you can download the reports for free. Below is a video message from the IFSW President Silvana Martinez and Secretary-General Rory Truell providing some examples of the success of the Global Agenda and inviting all people interested in the development of social work to participate in the consultation process. The video is subtitled in both Spanish and English.
Comments Section
Please leave any comments on your proposed Global Agenda themes for 2020 to 2030 and any suggestions for how to integrate the themes across the decade which also allows the Global Agenda process to effectively respond to any unforeseen social issues that may arise.
We are students from Germany in our Seminar about international Social Work we pay attention to social work indifferent regions. One point for region central america to adress in the upcoming agenda should be that social work has to become a profession, so that students have the opportunity to study the subject social work at the existent universities. Our research indicates that most of the countries are dependent on european and northern american countries that have social work as a profession already established.
Another main problem in these countries is the drug trafficking and the drug cultivation due to the climatic conditions and the conjunction between poverty and corruption. Many people are forced to choose the drug business to earn a living so it is necessary to provide development assistance and to strengthen the infrastructure. Anti-Drug campaigns and harder punishments could help to solve the problem.
Our last point for the region Central America to address in the upcoming agenda should be that it is very important to defend the human rights in these countries. Although they are integrated in the constitution, they are often neglected.
Wir sind eine Gruppe Studentinnen der Fliedner Fachhochschule in Düsseldorf (Deutschland), die sich im Rahmen des Seminars “internationale Soziale Arbeit” mit der Global Agenda of social work auseinader gesetzt hat.
Wir haben Südafrika als unser Land gewählt und folgende drei Ziele herausgearbeitet:
Zum einen empfinden wir das Thema des Umweltschutzes als besonders wichtig. Projekte wie zum Beispiel “i am water” sollen den Südafrikanern und Südafrikanerinnen den Schutz des Meeres näher bringen und es soll ihnen dabei ein umweltbewusstes Denken und Handeln vermittelt werden. Denn trotz zahlreicher Projekte bleibt die Plastikbelastung der Meere ein akutes Problem, besonders an den südafrikanischen Küsten.
Ein weiteres Ziel ist die soziale Gleichheit, denn Südafrika gilt trotz Ende der Apartheid als eines der ungleichsten Länder weltweit. Besonders in Kapstadt sortiert sich die extreme soziale Ungleichheit immer noch stark nach der Hautfarbe der Menschen.
Das dritte Ziel ist die internationale Netzwerkarbeit, um Probleme auf internationaler Ebene zu diskutieren und zu bearbeiten. Letztendlich profitiert nicht nur Südafrika von diesem Austausch, sondern alle beteiligten Länder.
We are students of social work at the “Fliedner Fachhochschule” in Germany.
In our seminar „international social work an development“ we discussed about the IFSW and the Global Agenda of social work. In addition we simulated a Global Agenda and set three aims for the next years. We represented Russia. The current situation of social work in Russia is characterized by an insufficient professionalization and an insufficient allocation of social benefits. Therefore we agreed on the aim to strengthen professionalization of social work. Furthermore one of our goals is a proper education for all countrys. Russia is undergoing changes in its education system, but this process has to be expanded. The third topic we discussed, is migration, which is very important for Russia because it’s the second largest country of immigration. Despite of the increasing number of immigrants the integration policy of Russia is insufficient and has to be improved.
We are students from Germany. In our Seminar “international Social Work” we pay attention to social work in different regions. So our group decided to pay some more attention to the social work in Sweden and we developed some points for the umpcoming agenda.
So we discuss the following subjects:
– social equality
– environmental Protection
– to expand the Networks with some countries, to get a better exchange in theory and strategies
We are also a group of social work students from Germany. In our class about international social work different groups searched for information regarding social issues and social work in various countries. Afterwards we simulated a conference to discuss topics for the global agenda. In the end we agreed on three goals.
The first goal is the promotion of the awareness for and the identity of social work. In a lot of (developing) countries the bigger part of the population is not aware of the existence of social work or does not recognize social work as professional. It is essentiell to make people aware of the fact that the profession of social work contributes to create a just society. More exchange and networking is necessary to grow the impact of social work. For example, networks between universities and colleges and exchanges of students can strenghten the social work community. Desireable is that social work becomes a respected and influential profession.
The second goal we agreed on is the fight against drug crime, especially by drug education. In every country, that we talked about during the class, drug abuse was listed as an increasing problem. In countries like Myanmar for example, where drugs are grown and produced, drug abuse seems to be ordinary. Many people are not informed about the consequences of drug usage. Therefore, drug education could be used as an instrument to prevent drug crime.
As a third goal we agreed on the education about human rights. Unfortunately, there are still lots of countries where human beings are treatened without respect and dignitiy. Children or women for example are still supressed in many places. In those societies supressing seems to be a part of the daily life. That is why it is essentiell to inform people about their rights and also to teach those who supress others that it is not human and legal to do so. Awareness and respect of human rights is a fundamental step to equality and justice.
Our group had chosen Myanmar as country to inform and think about. All the three topics, we agreed on in the simulated conference, would be helpful for Myanmar. Not many people know about social work in Myanmar and help is not provided professionally. It would be beneficial to integrate universities and colleges in Myanmar to the social work school network. Drug crime, as mentioned, is another huge issue in Myanmar and drug education is important. Fundamental is also the education about human rights. In this context another crucial topic for Myanmar ist child labour. Therefore, it would be important to discuss the labour conditions and the lack of education. Children must be protected.
Hi everybody,
we are four students of the profession of social work, living and studying in Germany. While one of our classes called ”international social work”, we talked about the global agenda and seperate ourselves in representatives for each country. Our group of four are likely keeping ourselves busy with the perpectives of Norway and Finland.
We think that both of the countries are very positive with regard to the profession of social work. The occupation is very wll-etablished and supported by the government. In our opinion the countries could do great network and could be although affective as an example for other nations. The satisfaction of the society seems to be one of the main goals of both, so for example they try to be excellent family-friendly and inclusive. It takes the effect that both of them are less achievement-oriented and strive for the interests of the national.
While we occupy ourselves with the social situation of Norway and Finland we were caught by surprise how positive the welfare system is constructed.
All in all we think Norway and Finland could be global succesfull and a positive paragon for a lot of others.
In the module “International Development in Social Work” we have dealt with social work in different countries by also considering which tasks social workers in different countries have to fulfil. We´ve formed different groups and payed attention to different countries. Our group, consisting of five students, has dealt with the country Italy. After learning about the country and its social projects and social problems, we have set 3 goals that we felt were the most important in Italy. The goals were to create new jobs in order to fight poverty, to settle social inequality and also to build a better network in Italy.
After setting our goals, we had another course meeting, in which all countries were presented and in which we should agree on three goals applying equally to all countries. After some time and discussion, we agreed on the following goals:
1. Expanding networking, 2. Countering social inequality 3. Protecting the environment. The first two goals relevant for the whole course coincided perfectly with two of our goals. Additionally, we incorporated the goal of environmental protection in our report.