You are here

Highlights of Our Collective Achievements in 2018, Looking Ahead to 2019

Nicole Brown's picture

As the year draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you - our members and other supporters – for the many accomplishments we’ve achieved together. Below are some of the highlights that your advocacy, outreach, expertise and support made possible this past year.

Advocating for Workforce

Some highlights of how you’ve helped us to advocate for workforce-supportive policy reforms at the global and national levels include: 

  • Through widely sharing with your networks, 35 organizations have now signed on to show support for the Call to Action for Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs. This advocacy tool makes recommendations at the country and global level for governments to initiate, lead and engage in dialogue with partners in order to strengthen the workforce and improve the lives of children and families.SDG Inforgraphic
  • During the 5th Annual Social Service Workforce Week, members helped to encourage individuals and groups to take specific steps toward achievement of the recommended actions outlined in the Call to Action, and shared replicable examples from their organizations of ways they are supporting workforce strengthening efforts.
  • To advocate for the workforce to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, elements of the Global Advocacy Toolkit continued to incorporated into members’ national and regional advocacy efforts to bring greater political and programmatic priority for strengthening the social service workforce, particularly in the areas of ending violence against children, improving health and well-being and supporting refugees and migrants.
  • Alliance members participated in World Social Work Day events held around the globe. Alliance staff presented at the Social Work Day at the United Nations event in Geneva and Alliance Ambassadors presented on advocacy approaches at the CRISOWO Conference in Rwanda.

Advancing Knowledge

Alliance members aim to advance knowledge by deriving, organizing and disseminating critical evidence-based research, resources, tools, models and best practices. Here are some of the ways we collectively advanced knowledge in 2018:

  • Members with three regions contributed data and input into Alliance-led workforce mappings and assessments in 16 countries within the East Asia and Pacific region and nine countries within the Middle East and North Africa region in collaboration with UNICEF Regional and Country Offices. In addition, the Alliance completed a scoping of eight countries in South Asia, documented in the State of the Social Service Workforce in South Asia Report to establish a baseline of information and data on the workforce in each country to guide and assist country-level action plans toward strengthening the workforce.
  • Members shared and responded to a survey to inform the State of the Social Service Workforce Report 2017: Stories of Workforce Efforts to Address Violence Against Children. This third annual report provides insight into workers’ backgrounds, training, education, services provided and organizational factors to demonstrate the value of multidisciplinary approaches to addressing violence against children.
  • Alliance Members within the Interest Group on Case Management developed and released two new resources: Core Concepts and Principles of Effective Case Management: Approaches for the Social Service Workforce and a Compendium of the best existing tools, forms, training materials and other resources on case management.
  • Five webinars were held over the course of the year, on topics suggested by members ranging from case management and ending and preventing violence against children to the role of a Council and workforce support to refugees. The Annual Social Service Workforce Strengthening Symposium featured partners and supporters sharing examples of how they have helped to elevate the discussion about the workforce, increased visibility and implemented strategies to strengthen the workforce.

Convening Stakeholders

Members from government, NGOs, academic institutions, donor groups, professional associations and community practitioners actively participate in the Alliance network to create a forum for discourse and collective learning. Some of these efforts in 2018 include:

  • Through participation in mapping work, Alliance members and supporters helped convene or support formation of multi-stakeholder country task groups in more than 12 countries. In Uganda, Alliance Ambassadors and staff actively participated in the National Social Work Symposium for the launch of a national social service workforce strengthening strategy.
  • Through sharing updates and inviting colleagues, members helped the Alliance network to expand by 600 members and 20 countries, totaling 2,100 members in 131 countries in 2018, increasing the reach of the network and numbers of workforce advocates.
  • The second cohort of the Alliance Ambassador program began in September, with 10 Ambassadors from 10 countries. The first cohort finished their two-year terms, contributing to formation of a national association of social workers, training social service professionals on improving disability inclusion in programming, drafting of a bill on regulating and licensing of social work as a profession, increased budget allocations for hiring more social service workers and development of a code of ethics for social workers.

Looking Ahead to 2019

Many exciting efforts are underway and will be realized in 2019 through continued support by you - our members and partners. Through your input and participation, we continue to develop new tools and resources for a stronger workforce.

  • The Alliance is developing a toolkit for UNICEF to support Country Offices in implementing the programme guidance on strengthening the social service workforce specific to child protection. The guidance will be released in the coming months, and the toolkit will be publicly released mid-2019 and include a tool specific to carrying out national workforce mapping, one of the most requested tools by our members.
  • The Alliance's State of the Social Service Workforce 2018 Report will include a multi-regional analysis and assessment of the workforce. Data from the three mappings and assessments in the East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia, will be compiled for this report, which will be shared during the 6th Annual Social Service Workforce Strengthening Symposium in May 2019.
  • Members will have increased advocacy opportunities. A new advocacy interest group will launch in early 2019 for members to exchange effective advocacy approaches for greater political will and programmatic support to the workforce, and members will also be asked to participate in sharing how national plans of action are underway toward achieving the recommendations within the Call to Action.
  • Additional details will be shared in the coming months. Through sharing knowledge and contributing expertise across the network, we all play an important role in contributing to a stronger social service workforce.

With Gratitude

As we enter the season of gratitude, we would like to express our appreciation to all of you - members, advocates and supporters of the Alliance’s work - toward building a stronger social service workforce that is best positioned to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. We are thankful to Alliance Steering Committee members, staff, Ambassadors, interest group members, consultants and the many others who have contributed their time and talent this year. We are thankful to our donors – USAID, GHR Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation and UNICEF – for supporting ongoing and new work. We look forward to continued engagement to advance this work in 2019 and invite our members to join our circle of friends by donating to this work.