History

The International Federation of Social Workers is a successor to the International Permanent Secretariat of Social Workers, which was founded in Paris in 1928 and was active until the outbreak of World War II. It was not until 1950, at the time of the International Conference of Social Work in Paris, that the decision was made to create the International Federation of Social Workers, an international organization of professional social workers.

The original agreement was that the IFSW would come into being when seven national organisations agreed to become members. After much preliminary work, the Federation was finally founded in 1956 at the time of the meeting of the International Conference on Social Welfare in Munich, Germany.


Book recommendation:

Sabine Hering/Berteke Waaldijk (Eds.): History of Social Work in Europe (1900-1960). Female Pioneers and their Influence on the Development of International Social Organizations. Opladen 2003