30 March 2020
The IFSW’s Asia Pacific Representatives to the UN in Bangkok have come together calling for immediate and urgent action from governments across the region to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
On the 25th of March the United Nations published the Asia and the Pacific Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report 2020, which measures whether our region is on track to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report highlights that on its current trajectory the Asia Pacific region (which is home to over 60% of the world’s population) remains unlikely to meet any of the 17 Goals by 2030.
Even though there has been some action and progress on key targets, there are inadequate measures to combat climate change and reduce inequalities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how health is a social justice issue. Not everyone has the same access to healthcare and governments must use the global crisis to dramatically change key policies and social protection systems to ensure that every human being is afforded their basic human rights.
The UN system can learn from and better utilize social workers, our values and approaches.
So many of the solutions to the major challenges we face over the next 10 years can be achieved through applying the profession’s principles and approaches as a framework for achieving social justice, inclusive participatory democracy, sustainable peaceful societies, social transformation for equality and rights.
For example, the report identified that efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger and reduce inequality must increase and respond to the multiple dimensions of deprivation. This a significant contribution from social workers as we understand the contextual, intersectional and multifaceted dimensions of people’s experience and work in partnership to address these issues.
IFSW’s Asia Pacific Representatives to the United Nation in Bangkok will continue to work together with the United Nations towards improving the wellbeing of all peoples and achieving the 2030 Goals.
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The IFSW has been granted Special Consultative Status by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. The overarching objective of IFSW representations to the UN is to represent a social work perspective to the UN and the UN Agencies and to work towards joint action based on social work principles.