This webinar, hosted by the U.S. Government’s Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity (APCCA) secretariat and Data for Impact, highlighted the critical role of the social service workforce, exploring and identifying the strengths and limitations of different approaches to strengthen the workforce across Armenia, Cambodia and Rwanda. The panelists, Yevigne Vardanyan (Advisor, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and Lecturer, Yerevan State University) Lo Leang (Lo Leang, Head of Child Protection, Family Care First, Save the Children Cambodia), and Leon Muwoni (Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF Rwanda), presented insightful overviews of the current state of the social service workforce in their respective countries and recommendations to further strengthen the workforce. Alex Collins (Data for Impact) provided a comprehensive overview of the multi-country assessment conducted by Data for Impact of different approaches undertaken to plan, develop, and support the workforce in these three countries. Rebecca Levy (USG Special Advisor for Children in Adversity) provided opening remarks and Jerome Galea (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Coordinator, USAID) closed out this webinar, reflecting on his experience as a licensed clinical social worker and how we collectively learn from different approaches used across different countries and address the limitations and challenges we face in ensuring a well-planned, developed and supported workforce is better able to address the needs and enhance the resources of at-risk populations for the future.
