Photo: members of the IFSW UN Commission from left to right, Hamed Olamaee, Tobis Roosen, Shenae Osborn, Evelyn Tomaszewski, Michael Cronin, Klaus Kühne, Charles Mbugua, Anne Deepak, Sebastian Cordoba, Suresh Pathare, Priska Fleischlin, Swetha Rao Dhananka and Herbert Paulischin. Also present but not in the photo were Sibylle Mani and Brigitte Leroy.
This week the IFSW UN Commissioners travelled from all parts of the world to meet in Switzerland to strengthen the relationships between various UN agencies and the Commission. Meetings were held with officials from The World Health Organization, The International Labor Organisation, The Office of the Human Rights Commissioner and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
In each event, the UN officials recognised and praised the role of social workers in facilitating and co-building ground-up social development. During the discussions, there was an acknowledgement on both sides a more systematic relationship needs to be developed between the UN agencies and the IFSW UN Commission. One UN official commented, ‘Until now we have consulted individual social workers, but we can see the significant added value of working in a new way with IFSW’. Further points included the importance of developing shared methodologies and language. It was also communicated that at the UN country-level projects should be developed in partnership with the local national association of social workers.
While in Geneva the IFSW UN Commission also met with a representative from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and knowledge was exchanged on responding to crisis situations. Following this the Commission met with Schools of Social Work of Geneva and Fribourg of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Westerns Switzerland. This meeting acknowledged the important partnerships that had been established in recent years to promote World Social Work Day in Geneva. A subsequent commitment was made by all involved to continue to work together in supporting these events. The universities recognised that the collaboration was beneficial in their curriculum development which is expanding to equip all their students with knowledge and understanding of international best practice examples of social work.
During the three-day visit to Switzerland, the Commissioners worked together to update the commission’s statement of intent. They agreed that the Peoples’ Charter is a call for change and the Commission has adopted it as a guiding document.
The People’s Charter for an Eco-Social World was co-facilitated by IFSW last year involving multiple global organisations, faiths, professions, trade unions, social movements, UN agencies and community representatives, collectively representing 100s of millions of people. The Charter sets a new vision for the world where people, peoples’ assemblies and governments work together to co-create solutions at the local and international levels.
The UN Commission visit was primely funded by AvenirSocial, the Swiss national association of social workers. Priska Fleischlin, the Global Commissioner of the IFSW UN Commission commented:
The cementing of relationships and development of plans between the UN agencies, other partners and the IFSW UN Commission has been very successful. The profession’s work at local and international levels has been recognized as essential in steering forward from global crisis to a sustainable and just world. This is a result of the examples of social work practitioners on the ground, the structure of IFSW in being able to take this knowledge to the United Nations, the commitment of all the volunteers in the Commission, and the support of the Swiss Association. As the UN officials have repeated, we can all have hope for better futures by shaping new ways of working and co-creating real engagement between people, communities and the UN.”