The Social Service Workforce in the East Asia and Pacific Region: A multi-country review

The purpose of the multi-country review, undertaken by UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office and the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, is to provide an overview of the current status of social service workforces in the region and to identify good and promising practices for workforce strengthening, in order to inform advocacy, legal, policy and strategy development, and investment. The report presents the size, scope and structure of the social service workforce, efforts to strengthen the workforce through policy development, legislative reform, professionalization, education and training, and steps to strengthen the child protection system in 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific: in-depth review - Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam; desk review - Fiji, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu. The report highlights the unique aspects of each country’s workforce, identifies progress, challenges and gaps, and presents factors that countries may consider when engaging in social service workforce strengthening.

Building on this work , in November 2020 the Heads of State of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States adopted the Hanoi Declaration on Strengthening Social Work Towards Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN Community. View the video from the ASEAN Declaration and read the UNICEF blog about the event and Declaration.