Blog

by Roger Pearson, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser, Child Protection, Programme Division, UNICEF

photo credit: UNICEF/NYHQ2006-127/d'Elbee

Global estimates point to hundreds of millions of girls and boys experiencing some form of violence, exploitation or harmful practice. One in 10 girls under the age of 20 has experienced sexual violence. In a study of five countries, at least one in four adolescent boys reported incidents of physical violence since age 15. Almost 750 million girls and women were married as children, and at least 200 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting. Hundreds of thousands of refugee and migrant children are at grave risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, including trafficking and smuggling. In addition, at least 2.7 million children, many of them with disabilities, live in residential care.

The global community has come together to achieve a world free of violence against children under the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular SDGs 5, 8 and 16. Goal 16.2 aims to “end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.” The world must come together to strengthen the protective environment through investments in national systems, community dialogue and behavior change. To reach these goals states will need to strengthen and expand their social services infrastructure and case management systems. And communities need support to enhance existing mechanisms that protect children. States now must go from the relatively easy task of agreeing to goals in international fora to the point where resource allocations to pay for systems building are allocated. This in turn, depending on local context, may need budget policies to be drafted, legislation to be updated, reviews and adjustments to be organized and all the other markers of good programme management. 

Taking action requires a functioning social service workforce, for without the workforce, the most vulnerable are often not protected. Social service workers facilitate critical linkages between civil society and multiple government sectors including health, education, social protection, child protection and justice. In humanitarian situations, local level community social service workers support community-based approaches that provide psychosocial support to girls, boys and women experiencing gender-based violence, including by providing safe spaces. Social service workers prevent family separation and support reunification of unaccompanied and separated children, advocate for the prevention of recruitment of children into the fighting forces and support the release and reintegration of girls and boys associated with armed forces and groups. They support programs for provision of survivor assistance to children affected by landmines and explosive arms. Social service workers are needed to protect children exposed to grave violations in situations of armed conflict and to support survivors.

Frontline or local level social service workers providing direct support to children and families are needed, as are those who are mobilizing communities, advocating for policy change, writing legislation, designing programs, securing funding, managing social service agencies, running professional associations, educating and training, supervising, mentoring, researching, monitoring and evaluating, and overseeing information management systems.

The SDGs are an opportunity for those who see the importance of social service workers to come together and advocate for the allocation of adequate resources to do what is required to fulfill the SDGs even for the most vulnerable. There are many opportunities for advocacy coalitions to come together, including when a national development plan is being revised or reviewed, when parliamentarians are up for election, or when priorities are being laid out for the use of international development funding to support national development. 

With these SDGs now in place, the ground is more fertile than it has ever been to make the case for greater investments in the social service workforce. Let us come together more closely to lobby states who have made promises to deliver on SDGs at the international level to live up to their words by making the necessary modifications to their social services country-by-country.

Over three days in September, 400 attendees from 35 countries came together to discuss achieving “Equity, Equality for All Girls, Boys and Youth” at the Regional Psychosocial Support (REPSSI) Forum, held in Arusha, Tanzania. In discussing ways to enhance wellbeing for vulnerable children and their families, participants shared promising practices and innovative approaches to address some of the greatest challenges facing their local communities and nations. The Forum highlighted the ways in which designing and implementing programs that combat these challenges requires a strong social service workforce.

Keynote speakers including Tanzania Minister of Health Hon. Ummy Mwalimu; REPSSI CEO Noreen Huni; Jake Glaser, Ambassador of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; and representatives from the Southern African Development Community pointed to the importance of multi-sectoral collaboration and highlighted evidence depicting the high cost of inaction on lives and livelihoods.

Several sessions throughout the Forum spoke to the importance of social service system strengthening with an emphasis on workforce strengthening. As co-host of the Forum, the Alliance presented three panel sessions. During a session on case management approaches to strengthen the social workforce, three presenters shared the key role of the workforce in providing services for children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS, family separation and disabilities. Case studies from Kenya, the East and Southern Africa regions and Namibia featured the usage of innovative tools and resources on integrating case management into violence prevention programs, and using case conferencing and supervision to strengthen the workforce and improve service delivery. Both sessions also shared the current work of the Interest Group on Case Management, including small group discussions to review a document outlining core case management concepts and principles and an assessment tool that is being designed to review and compile existing case management tools into a compendium that will be located on the Alliance’s website.

A third session hosted by the Alliance shared tips and examples for developing an advocacy campaign to advocate for greater workforce-supportive policies nationally, regionally and globally. The Alliance shared some of the worksheets and steps for creating an advocacy campaign that are included within the new Global Advocacy Toolkit.

Speakers on the Alliance’s panels included Alliance Ambassadors, Alliance staff and 4Children colleagues who shared country case studies and regional approaches. The Alliance also hosted an information table during the Forum to share publications and information with participants. More than 50 new members from 13 countries became members of the Alliance network during the Forum, and many also joined the Interest Group on Case Management.

Additional sessions included a review of the Minimum Standards on Comprehensive Services for Children and Young People in the EAC, focusing on five key strategies to ensure the provision of comprehensive services, one of which is the social service workforce. A session on enhancing country ownership and strengthening systems on psychosocial programs highlighted how community health is improved through social service system strengthening.

In offering closing remarks, the Alliance challenged participants to remain engaged, build on discussions and make progress toward workforce strengthening. In its role as a convener, the Alliance stands ready to provide a platform for ongoing learning from colleagues around the globe, exchanging best practices across borders and deriving new and innovative approaches. The Alliance shares in the aims of the Forum to generate political will, convene people across roles and sectors, and advance knowledge through the exchange of promising practices.

Many people are not aware of the myriad of issues that social workers and others in the social service sector help individuals and communities to address. During the Social Work, Education and Social Development 2017 Conference more than 200 practitioners, government representatives, researchers, students, association members, and NGO, CSO and FBO staff came together to discuss innovative national, regional and global evidence-based approaches in social work. Held June 25-28 in Livingstone, Zambia, the conference was jointly hosted by the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA), the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, Africa), and Social Workers’ Association of Zambia (SWAZ).

Presentations encouraged dialogue on approaches to providing services to address HIV/AIDS, childhood marriage, gender-based violence, social protection, child protection, gender equality, family-based care, environmental sustainability and protection, and other issues affecting vulnerable populations that require a well-planned, well-developed and well-supported social service workforce.

The conference is one of several regional conferences organized with support of IFSW annually, leading up to the IFSW Global Conference in June 2018. During opening remarks, Ruth Stark, President of IFSW, challenged attendees to think of their role globally. “Research shows that for every $1 spent on social services, the return to the local economy is $3. We have an incredible contribution to make to our communities and global communities. Our profession is a borderless profession.”

To emphasize the global nature of the profession, the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance supported the conference and coordinated a panel session on ‘Identifying effective social service workforce strengthening and case management in initiatives in Zambia and beyond.’ Presenters from Zambia Rising Project at Save the Children, the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia, Expanded Church Response and Luapula Foundation joined the Alliance in presenting on roles and responsibilities in case management, embedding case management into communities and building consensus in uses of case management. Participants also discussed alternative care case management systems as a component of the broad integrated case management system within the child and family welfare system.

I took part in a panel presentation on how to advocate for a stronger workforce. During the panel I shared the new Global Advocacy Toolkit for the Social Service Workforce that the Alliance developed with WithoutViolence. The toolkit provides evidence-based tools for developing messages, determining key audiences, creating outreach plans and monitoring success of efforts to advocate to policy-makers and stakeholders for greater funding and support for the social service workforce.

I also attended several of the more than 100 abstract presentations. Some of the highlights for me included learning from Genious Musokotwane from Girls Not Brides who reviewed how social workers in Zambia are also involved in providing safe spaces for girls freed from childhood marriages to be able to complete their schooling through grade 12. The organization is trying to work with communities to overcome religious and cultural beliefs that allow girls to marry as soon as they reach puberty so that more girls can finish school and delay pregnancies. In 2016, 16,000 girls nationwide dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancy; annually 15 million girls are married before they turn 18.[1] 

Representatives from social work councils in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe provided detail on how the councils were established, their role in supporting the profession and the sustainability of both the council and association through dues and fees related to registration and licensing. As the only three countries among the 54 countries in Africa with a council and association, there was great interest from other participants to learn how to begin the process in their country. “Contribute your voice as practitioners through involvement in your national association and give visibility and credibility to the profession, learn from each other and validate the work of others,” stated Noel Muridzo, IFSW Africa President.

In another session on social protection and legal frameworks for policy development with Southern African Development Community (SADC), examples from Kenya, Zambia and Mozambique were highlighted. “SADC leads the continent in range, reach and number of social protection programs,” said Vince Chipatuka, Southern African Social Protection Experts Network Coordinator. The session sought to inform social workers and development practitioners on current developments within the region in order to enhance policy interventions at the national level.

As a network, the Alliance fosters the exchange of ideas, tools and best practices across countries. For many at the conference, this was the first such opportunity to learn from others working in the same field in another country. More than 20 conference attendees became members of the Alliance to continue this discourse with colleagues globally.

The Alliance’s participation in the conference was supported by the GHR Foundation’s Children in Families project. The GHR Foundation is supporting the Alliance and other organizations working in Zambia that are helping to strengthen the workforce to support vulnerable families and provide family-based care for children.

 “On behalf of 3 million social workers in 124 countries represented by the International Federation of Social Workers, I welcome you to Social Work Day at the United Nations,” said Suzanne Dworak-Peck. “Social workers are experts in leading communities…to achieve common goals.”

She joined organizing co-chairs Shirley Gatenio-Gabel Professor at Fordham University and International Association of Schools of Social Work Representative to the UN, and Dr. Robin Mama Sakina, Dean of Monmouth University and IFSW Representative to the UN, in opening the April 17, 2017 event to a sold-out crowd of practitioners, professors, students, NGO representatives, associations and other supporters of the social work profession. Attendees from throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Australia, China and remote participants viewing the live webcast took part in the annual event that shines a light on the significant impact social workers have on the local and global community and provides a platform for social workers to engage on shared goals of the United Nations.

“Our local issues need to be linked to global trends. We must commit to aligning our practices…to achieve the sustainable development goals,” said Gatenio-Gabel in her opening remarks. She referenced the dynamic, innovative, people-centric work of social workers toward ‘Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability.’ This was the 2017 theme, which relates to the third pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development. Throughout the event, panelists shared examples of local and global activism toward achieving these goals under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda for 2030.

His Excellency the Honorable Ambassador Masud Bin Moment, Permanent Representative of the Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, shared Bangladesh’s environmental goals and steps the country is currently undertaking. He called upon the international community to recognize the need and take action toward environmental sustainability. “Social workers can motivate local people to carry out the SDGs,” he stated, encouraging those in attendance to be an active, local voice.

John Ennis, Chief of Information and Outreach, Office of Disarmament Affairs, United Nations, also challenged social workers to think about how they can be involved in the SDGs. He shared his experiences as a social work practitioner and prior roles in international development. “In my experiences, governments tend to act when civil society is leading the way…Social work plays an enormous role in a country’s socioeconomic development…Today, social issues are more interwoven into other issues.”

Stressing the combined impact of social issues and environmental issues on indigenous peoples, Roberto Borrero with the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous People, spoke about the need to raise these issues at the international level. He highlighted that the SDGs specifically reference indigenous peoples and progress is being made toward inclusion but there are still great challenges and opportunities to do more.

“Today’s history is not written,” said Terri Klemm, Associate Professor and BSW Program Director at Centenary University. She stressed the importance of local community organizing and that taking a stand for the local community’s interest requires skills learned through social work. “Activism is self-care.” She shared her own personal environmental social justice interests and the ways in which she has mobilized individuals in the community to rally around preventing the detrimental impacts of fracking.

Similarly, MSW Student Elizabeth Gustafson shared the ways in which she used her community organizing skills she has learned through her MSW course work and field placements. As a macro-focused student, she emphasized valuing both macro- and micro- level practice.  When she joined activists at Standing Rock, North Dakota, for several days in November 2016 she noted that she learned that “Change at the global level is as important as at the policy level.”.

Anna Maria Campanini, President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work, echoed this comment. She agreed that there needs to be greater collaboration and integration between micro and macro-level social work to support provision of services to individuals and also incorporate a policy perspective to create positive change for clients at the systems level. She concluded by saying that “social work can promote peace and culture in communities. The UN and social work can both benefit and have a greater influence upon development.”

Following the event, social work students then participated in a student-led event to continue discussions on how they and the profession can support the SDGs and promote community and environmental sustainability. The events served as a call to action for the profession to continue to take a stand for the best interests of their fellow community members in order to have a combined global impact.