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The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, on November 25, is an annual day aimed at increasing awareness and hastening progress to end all gender-based violence. It is the launch of 16 Days of Activism to increase advocacy and actions to end violence, concluding on December 10, Human Rights Day.

The numbers of women and girls subjected to violence are staggering and represent a grave violation of human rights. As many countries faced lock down during 2020 due to COVID-19, these numbers are increasing. UN Women shares some alarming statistics:

• Globally, 243 million women and girls were abused by an intimate partner in the past year.
• Less than 40 percent of women who experience violence report it or seek help.
• In some countries, calls to helplines have increased five-fold.

This year's campaign calls for "global action to bridge funding gaps, ensure essential services for survivors of violence during the COVID-19 crisis, focus on prevention, and collect data that can improve life-saving services for women and girls." 

The United Nations defines violence against women as any act that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Violence occurs in many forms-physical, sexual and psychosocial- having a long-lasting emotional and mental impact that affects overall well-being. 

The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for specific actions to address violence against women and girls by the year 2030. Goal #5 aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” including target 5.2 that calls for “eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.” SDG target 16.2 aims to “end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.” 

A well planned, developed and supported social service workforce is a key component of a strong system needed to address this issue. Social service workers are trained to analyze and understand the complex and varied reasons that violence is perpetrated against women and can support communities in changing societal behaviors and preventing violence. Social service workers also play a key role in providing counseling and referral services for care and treatment of physical, mental and psychosocial health. Creating an environment where women and girls are comfortable sharing that they have been a victim of violence is an essential first step to providing care and treatment. Social service workers can also be advocates to the government and for victims, and oftentimes have a leading role in obtaining justice by working closely with law enforcement.

“Child protection workers and violence against women advocates are now finding new ways to work together,” said Dr. Bernadette J. Madrid, MD, Executive Director of the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc. in the Philippines. “Studies show that interventions to prevent domestic violence can also reduce the exposure of children to domestic violence leading to synergistic effects. These results are very exciting to professionals working in the Women and Child Protection Units in the Philippines. While there are different issues that separate violence against women and violence against children, there are also intersections for cooperative efforts.”

Get Involved
Show your support and help raise awareness by joining in 16 days of activism.

• The United Nations is mark 16 days of activism now through December 10, Human Rights Day. In support of The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, individuals are encouraged to wear orange as a demonstration of a bright future, free from violence
• Join the United Nations Secretary-General’s Campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women by organizing “Orange Events” between 25 November and 10 December. 
• Share photos, messages and videos showing how you orange your world at facebook.com/SayNO.UNiTE and twitter.com/SayNO_UNiTE using #orangetheworld.

Tweet Your Support

Below are some drafted tweets we encourage you to share on Twitter. The Alliance will also be tweeting throughout the 16 days and we invite you to follow us, share and comment.

• The social service workforce plays a vital role in helping to #ENDViolence against women. #GBV http://bit.ly/1MBWFgj
• The social service workforce plays a key role in spotting signs of abuse & providing care/treatment. #orangetheworld
• Social service workers are committed to #ENDViolence but we need to support this workforce to achieve #SDG16. http://bit.ly/1MBWFgj

blog by Cornelius Williams, Associate Director & Global Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division, UNICEF

A strong social service workforce demonstrates not only the power of individuals to impact peoples’ lives, but their collective power to challenge norms and drive change on the ground. In the 1990s, during the armed conflict in my home country Sierra Leone, I witnessed firsthand how our decrepit, post-colonial era social service workforce came under stress amid the civil war but then transformed itself to rise to the challenges faced by children on the frontlines. Rather than following previous pressures to acculturate families to maintain economic, social, and political stability, the workforce defied colonial norms and instead championed the rights and equality of thousands of children through sustained support and rehabilitation.

This transformative power has been witnessed globally where we have seen first responders and frontline workers forced to fast-track lessons learned and adapt to populations’ needs by developing new, or reformed, systems and rules that challenge patriarchal hierarchy and social injustice. Undeniably the most important element of child protection systems, a strong social service workforce is a lynchpin that cuts across actors and across sectors to protect children from harm and social injustice. The multifaceted roles of these workers are vital, ranging from service delivery to policy development at various levels.

Governments and organizations have traditionally invested in some aspects of strengthening the social service workforce, particularly in training its workers. However, the focus of these initiatives has largely been on those already in a specific job or assigned to perform certain job functions. Little attention was paid to strengthening the workforce more comprehensively by: 1) identifying and planning its requirements; 2) institutionalizing the role of its workers through national legislation or programmes; and 3) developing education and training programmes based on real-life contexts, with long-term opportunities for career growth and development. The absence of these measures has contributed to further minimizing the already poor level of recognition of the essential roles social service workers play.  

UNICEF has long engaged in efforts to amplify and support this issue, including our close association with the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance since its launch in 2013. More recently, we identified social service workforce strengthening as an organizational priority for our work on child protection embedded in our Strategic Plan (2018 -2021). Now that we have reached the midway point of implementation, I would like to take a moment to reflect on how far we have come, and how much further we need to go.

At the global level, we prioritized the development of public goods to support our work at the country level. In 2019, UNICEF, in consultation with the Alliance, issued its first-ever global Guidelines to Strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection, followed by a mapping toolkit for social service workforce, and other resources. Earlier this year, UNICEF launched its online course on social service workforce strengthening – in just three months we saw more than 3,400 participants (and counting) complete the course, demonstrating why the importance of this topic.

On the ground, our work translated into supporting governments with various actions to better plan, develop, and support their respective workforce. In 2019, UNICEF supported 137 countries to strengthen the social service workforce globally. From conducting mappings and assessments; to helping plan the workforce in the Middle East and North Africa region; to advocacy in East Asia and the Pacific (with ASEAN), and in Europe and Central Asia, respectively; to developing policies and legislation in Malaysia; to setting up academic programmes in Bhutan and supervision systems in the Gambia – this work has been both challenging and rewarding.

While we have seen progress globally, we must also recognize some sombre reflections as we implement the latter half UNICEF’s Strategic Plan – including that prioritizing investments to systematically strengthen the social service workforce is not as straightforward as it sounds. In countries that face economic challenges, social sectors are the first to be hit by cutbacks in spending – a harsh reality likely to be further exacerbated during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges are further amplified by the ripple effects of the pandemic which have also increased child protection risks – such as violence, child labour, child marriage –, leading to more children in need of child protection services.

However, new challenges also bring new opportunities. The pandemic has brought social service workers who are often invisible – working “behind the scenes” – to the forefront and helped us highlight the critical role they play in children’s lives. Their inspiring stories have resonated with leaders and policymakers alike, giving us hope that we are on the right path. Using remote case management and virtual case conferencing as the new normal would have been almost unthinkable until recently. As a sector, child protection adapted quickly to the new reality – and a host of tools and guidance were made available in a matter of days. On the ground, however, workers continue to face challenges – both in terms of access to technology, and the lack of face-to-face interaction that has for long been a hallmark of child protection.

At UNICEF, we are committed to advocating for and supporting governments to plan, develop, and support the next generation of the social service workforce. While there is no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solution, we do know key elements of a strong workforce are to be informed by a robust evidence-base, responsive to today’s changing realities, and able to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges. These individuals are on the frontlines every day – whether in a war zone or deprived local neighborhood. They are social justice warriors driving the major transformation we are seeing unfold in the Global South – from South Africa to India –, and now is their time to take centre stage in this decade of action and beyond.

Cornelius Williams is Associate Director and Global Chief of Child Protection for UNICEF Programme Division. He has over 25 years of experience in managing child protection programmes in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa with UNICEF and Save the Children. As a child rights advocate, he has been involved in advocacy that led to improved protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian settings, reduced recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups, and increased access of children to identity documents/ birth certificate and social assistance and other services. Mr. Williams has played a leading role in coordinating UNICEF’s engagement with governments and other partners in the development of programmes for the prevention and response to violence against children in countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. He is a national of Sierra Leone and holds a Master of Arts in International Child Welfare from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.

blog by Ian Milligan, International Advisor, CELCIS, University of Strathclyde, Scotland

In social services, the type of supervision we have is quite distinctive – it is meant to be personal, supportive, developmental - things that are not usually associated with supervision as a traditional middle management-type role.

In recent years there have been numerous pieces of research and policy documents aimed at improving supervision –  carried out in countries where social work is well established. The fact that there is much research into supervision in countries where it is well-established, tells you that it is a difficult thing to get right and sustain. That is certainly true in my experience in Scotland and across the UK.

The Alliance Interest Group on Supervision in the Social Service Workforce 

So I have been very happy to be part of the Alliance’s global consultation process on the subject. I was one of the co-chairs of the interest group, working along with Jane Calder, Senior Child Protection Advisor, Asia and Pacific, and Sayed Adrian Mawismi, Assistant Development Officer, Department of Social Welfare in Malaysia. The consultation took place online, and over 60 people took part in a number of discussion and planning calls, exploring the main issues before we split into three working groups.  

Naturally, we had lots of viewpoints, even just about how we should describe what we all talking about! We began by agreeing to a definition and some basic meanings about the various ‘models’ of supervision. We realised that we had to be clear about what we meant in what we hope will be a widely used and translated toolkit. While this toolkit isn’t meant to be exhaustive or the final say on supervision, it is intended to bridge best practices and knowledge on supervision and to provide a toolkit of resources to support the development of supervision.Some of our starting points: there are many countries where supportive supervision is little understood and rarely practiced. There are other countries where social work is a relatively new profession and few people with the experience or capacity to undertake supervision. In some places the State has begun to recruit social workers but often not established systematic systems of supervision. We hope our guidance provides advocacy and resources to address this gap. We also wanted to see if we could find or develop any guidance to deal with the COVID-19 situation and the need for online supervision. We also wanted our guidance to address whole workforce, while recognising much of the literature and practice has been developed within the social work profession. We wanted to look at existing resources and we drew from recent resources published in Namibia, Myanmar and Cambodia to name but three. We also recognised the value in recent work of the Inter-Agency group who produced the Supervision and Coaching package developed for those working in emergency situations but with great relevance to those in development contexts also.

Group supervision and peer supervision was a topic which came up more than I expected in the interest discussions. My sub-group felt that peer group supervision might be especially useful in countries where social work is an emerging profession, and where there are few experienced managers who can offer reflective supervision.

Bottom up as well as top down

Making supervision happen across an organisation is both a top-down and a bottom-up matter. The Alliance guidance is focused on government and agencies who are responsible for implementing supervision across departments. Yet I believe that all of us who work in social services have a duty to seek the support of a colleague or colleagues and to be honest about how we are getting on in our work, to find those people who understand the role, who will support us and help us improve.

So I’ll be pleased if what we've developed - Guidance Manual on Strengthening Supervision for the Social Service Workforce - can get more people talking about supervision and doing it. Whatever setting we work in, wherever in the world, social service work is personal, it involves working with oppressed groups and people in trouble and often in distress. It is vital we don’t become hardened to trauma, exclusion and injustice. And we must be accountable – are we doing the work we say we are doing – and how are we doing it? We don’t just want to ‘help’ though, we want to empower – it’s pretty demanding to get all that right! Sitting down with a senior colleague or a peer, or in a group – where the agenda is our practice - can be uncomfortable at times. But if we are open-minded and realise we need this space to do the job better, then sitting down with an experienced and supportive person is a good place to be.

Let’s get it in the diary!

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on individuals and communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized. National social service systems in many countries have been stretched to respond. As a result, there is increasing recognition of the important role of social service workers, particularly in the areas of child protection, family strengthening, psychosocial support and mental health. To meet the heightened call for a range of services, many governments and non-governmental organizations have increased funding to hire and train more workers and have passed legislation to ensure continuity of services. 

How has your organization supported advocacy efforts for increased funding, greater recognition or policies to deem the social service workforce an essential service provider? Add your voices and engage in the conversation by contributing your comments on this page.

Tirusew Getachew is a social worker at a quarantine centre in Ethiopia, where her work includes needs assessment, family tracing and family reunification. UNICEFEthiopia/2020/NahomTesfaye

Global advocacy for recognition as essential service providers
Multiple global entities have advocated for social workers and other social service workers to be considered essential service providers and are raising awareness of their daily work.

The Statement from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and a letter from the Group of Friends of Children and the SDGs, endorsed by more than 160 member states, highlight the importance of holistic COVID-19 response plans that ensure well-being and healthy development of children. It calls on national governments and multilateral institutions to work immediately to strengthen ‘child protection in COVID-19’ response frameworks and to provide sufficient donor support to implement these responses effectively. The statement calls for several actions including to: Designate members of the social service workforce (SSW) as essential to prevent and respond to child protection risks; Provide them with appropriate Infection Prevention and Control training, and equip them with personal protective equipment in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) guidance and national laws; and Ensure that resources are available for national governments and humanitarian actors to fully implement these responses, recognizing the traditional gaps in child protection funding in past humanitarian aid expenditures.

The Joint Leaders’ Statement from global organizations working to end violence against children “calls on governments, the international community and leaders in every sector to urgently respond with a united effort to protect children from the heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse as part of the broader response to COVID-19. Governments have a central role to play. They must ensure that COVID-19 prevention and response plans integrate age appropriate and gender sensitive measures to protect all children from violence, neglect and abuse. Child protection services and workers must be designated as essential and resourced accordingly. Working with and supporting governments, our collective response must include: maintaining essential health and social welfare services, including mental health and psychosocial support; providing child protection case management and emergency alternative care arrangements; ensuring social protection for the most vulnerable children and households; continuing care and protection for children in institutions; and communicating with and engaging parents, caregivers and children themselves with evidence-based information and advice.

As an example of advocacy and interagency coordination, the Ugandan government issued a declaration that district probation and community development officers should sit on district intersectoral COVID-19 task forces across the country. These staff are primarily professional social workers, and they are meant to highlight issues of child protection, gender based violence, disability and psychosocial support so that these issues are addressed by the COVID-19 task forces.

National policy support
In many countries, social service workers are advocating for their work to be considered essential so that services continue. Many professional associations and organizations have been successful in attaining recognition by governments for social service workers as frontline service providers in order to continue and adapt social services. 

Under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) in Malaysia, social service workers are considered among essential service providers. Funding has also been allocated for ongoing training and acquiring new skills and knowledge to meet new and increasing needs. 

In states and cities throughout the United States, social workers, case workers and other social service workers have been declared as essential service providers and given flexibility in determining continuity of services. 

When the government closed all social services in Romania, the social work association successfully lobbied ministers to overturn the decision. Then, mobile teams of local law enforcement and social service workers worked in tandem to increase door deliveries of basic food and hygiene products to vulnerable groups, including single parent households, Roma populations and children with disabilities. 

The National Association of Social Workers Uganda brought together many organizations to advocate for social service workers to be recognized as essential service providers and to obtain PPE and an allowance for those working at the quarantine centers. With an expected 2,500 people returning to Uganda from other countries, there is great need for psychosocial support at the quarantine centers. To assist with emergecy mobilization of qualified first responders, the Association is compiling a list of qualified social workers who are ready and able to respond. When the Child Helpline closed during lockdown, the Association and partners also advocated for it to reopen and be recognized as an essential service. 

The South African Council on Social Service Professionals, representing social workers and child and youth care workers, actively advocated to relevant ministries to ensure properly licensed practitioners are considered essential service providers to be able to continue meeting the needs of communities; safety of workers is taken into account by employers; and a permissive work environment is created to ensure maximum service excellence. They worked closely with the Minister on development of policies and directives for social service workers to continue services during lockdown. “I would like to pay special tribute to all our service workers, and particularly our social work professionals, all support staff, as well as professional volunteers, who are out there every day, working hard to ensure that services to the most vulnerable continue, whilst dealing with the personal health threat of contracting the coronavirus,” said Western Cape Minister of Social Development Sharna Fernandez. 

Guidance for Social Workers During Covid-19 Response in Malawi, developed by the Association of Social Workers in Malawi and UNICEF, provides categories of essential social services that must be continued to meet the needs of vulnerable people during COVID-19 and the essential promotive, preventative and responsive functions of the social service workforce. The guidance sets out instructions and key principles related to COVID-19 for all social workers and para-professionals in Malawi, and their employers in government and non- governmental organizations to safely support children, families, and communities; raise professional concerns and questions; and request appropriate support and guidance from employers. 

In the Philippines, Proclamation No. 922 authorized hazard pay to government personnel who physically reported to work during quarantine for COVID-19. Public social workers were among the cadres of workers and personnel eligible to receive hazard pay for each day they were physically reporting for work. 

Increasing workforce numbers and capacity
With COVID-19 funding from USAID, the Government of Cambodia has hired 20 new social workers (in addition to 17 already working in priority provinces for care reform) for four months to provide the additional support during COVID-19. With this new deployment, every province in the country now has a social worker. In particular, these workers are focusing on case management, child protection and prevention of family separation. 

In Bangladesh, where there was an increase of four times the number of calls to the Child Helpline between February and April, UNICEF advocated to the government to reopen child courts, continue birth registration and hire more workers. The country had 3,000 social service workers before the onset of COVID-19 but needs at least 80,000 to meet typical needs. Online training was conducted for new social workers who were hired to assist the Child Helpline center, support institutions and places of detention, and work in key urban and field locations. Advocacy efforts resulted in social workers being considered as essential, critical and lifesaving. 

With 170,263 children affected by COVID-19 school closures in Bhutan, the Ministry of Education activated the Education Emergency Operation Centre under which a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) sub desk was created. To ensure the provision of MHPSS to children, parents and caregivers in need, 147 school counsellors from 20 districts were each assigned a set number of schools to work with. With support from UNICEF, a guidance note on provision of remote PSS to parents and caregivers in Bhutan was developed to support the counsellors and other front liners working with families. All 147 school counsellors (80 male and 76 female) have been trained on how to provide psychosocial support remotely to parents and caregivers and face to face structured psychosocial support to children once the schools reopen. Laja Wangchuk, a participant, said, “The training helped me enhance my professional service delivery in time of the emergency. Especially at this COVID-19 emergency period, students, staff, parents and general public are stressed out more than the usual.” 

In South Africa, a database has been launched for unemployed and graduated social workers to enroll to help in filling roles and hiring of qualified workers. Additionally, a partnership between the National Department of Social Development, HWSETA and University of the Witwatersrand Health Consortium is placing 1,210 newly qualified social work graduates in social development and health roles. 

Community Social Workers (CSW) are a part of the frontline workforce in Armenia. In April 2020, the “Community Level Access to Social Services” (CLASS) project, funded by USAID/DCOF, conducted a needs assessment in the communities to have a clear picture of the CSW role in the communities during the COVID-19 pandemic under the conditions of the lockdown. CSWs work for local governments in a village or cluster of villages with a population of 5,000 or more. Through the end of April, 14,933 families received services, including support in applying for state programs/ resources, referrals to public organizations /programs, financial support, emergency care packages and home visits. In response to the vastly increased workload and burnout of the community social workers who started working 24/7, four additional senior social workers were hired. They keep in touch with the CSWs assigned to them on a daily basis and provide educational, professional and supportive supervision. World Vision is providing training and technical supervision to these 86 CSWs. 

COVID-19 is taking a toll on the mental health & psychosocial well-being of children & caregivers. UNICEF is also supporting governments in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania to strengthen the capacity of social workers to provide MHPSS services and deliver other interventions. And in Ethoipia, UNICEF is working closely with the Addis Ababa Bureau of Women, Children and Youth for recruitment, training and deployment of social workers in quarantine centers.

The Iran Association of Social Workers established a system for direct consultative and supervision support to social workers by enlisting 60 university professors and managers of social organizations. A list of specialized areas, available times and mobile phone numbers were provided to social workers to connect with them. The Association also provided an update to the President of Iran on social workers’ responses during the pandemic to gain greater support. 

Integration of social and health services
When social service workers are included in integrated health services and work alongside health workers and other allied workforces, everyone wins. During this unprecedented public health pandemic, social service workers are once again proving the essential, frontline role they play in caring for and protecting individuals and communities. The Alliance recently conducted a survey to gain insight on how social service workers are responding during COVID-19. Survey results show that 28% of social service workers are supporting health staff in provision of health services. 

Medical social workers in Nigeria

Medical social workers in Nigeria are working alongside health workers as frontline workers by providing psychosocial support and community contact tracing. In Colombia, the government launched a cross-institutional social and health framework with the goal of providing better services in order to reduce the high child mortality rates associated with all types of violence. Evidence from South Africa has shown that including child protection alongside health services contributes to supporting HIV prevention goals. These lessons are being applied to the current COVID-19 response to ensure that the work of the social service workforce is included in health responses. 

In Croatia, workers are prioritizing services to middle and high-risk families, and based on case manager assessments, families at high risk are supported with face-to-face services. To meet the growing needs for responsive services to respond to reports of family violence, the Ministry has established special crisis teams. 

Resources to Increase Support
To support social service workers in advocacy efforts for greater planning, development and support while ensuring safety and well-being during the COVID-19 response, the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance has collaborated with the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF and IFSW on a technical note. The Safety and Wellbeing of the Social Service Workforce during COVID-19 Response: Recommended Actions outlines how a well-supported, appropriately equipped, empowered, and protected social service workforce is essential to mitigating the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The document also  provides guidance on how to support the social service workforce and empower them to safely serve children, families, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance has developed advocacy materials to support the workforce in advocating for increased support, including a Global Advocacy Toolkit for the Social Service Workforce and a Call to Action: Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs. 

Several other technical notes also call for recognition for child protection and other roles of the social service workforce to be designed as essential, including: COVID-19: Protecting Children from Violence, Abuse, and Neglect in the Home; Working with Communities to Keep Children Safe; and Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Children and Alternative Care. Other technical notes relevant to the social service workforce can be found on the Alliance website.

Share Wins for the Social Service Workforce
This is an unprecedented time to advocate for the social service workforce. The International Federation of Social Workers, in a recent article, noted the speed at which change is taking place regarding recognition of the role of social workers, stating, “Change in the delivery of social services normally takes years. There are exceptions, where political direction coincides with the aspirations of the communities and social services workforce, but these are rare. The journey over the last five months is something new: a change at global level caused by a pandemic, where social workers have been and continue to be at the forefront advocating and leading change in nearly every country.” 

It is important to capture and highlight achievements that are happening at such speed. This blog only begins to list the many policy and funding wins achieved by the social service workforce due to their essential role during the COVID-19 response. We encourage everyone to share wins your organization or association has helped to achieve so others can learn from these successes and together, we can jointly advocate for continued change. What advocacy efforts have you undertaken? How has the social service workforce received greater funding support or policy recognition? Add your voices and engage in the conversation by contributing your comments here.