158 Global Social Work Agenda in A Precarious World

[00:00:01] Welcome back to the Social World Podcast, Thoughts On The Social World. I'm David Niven and as always it's a pleasure to have your company.

[00:00:22] Today we're going to do something a little bit different because I was kindly invited to be a speaker recently at the Global Institute of Social Work Annual Talk.

[00:00:35] And it's them in collaboration with the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the Social World Podcast.

[00:00:44] They bring you the annual Global Social Work Talk and this has become a regular and a very well thought-of event in the international social work community.

[00:00:57] Now prominent social workers and global leaders present their experiences and share ideas that might well impact on the community.

[00:01:05] And today we're talking about social work in a precarious world and what the speakers take on that is.

[00:01:14] Now this will be hosted by Dr Anthony Tan who's the Vice President of the International of the Global Institute of Social Work.

[00:01:21] And the three speakers are Dr Antoinette Lombard who is nominated for incoming president of the International Association of the Schools of Social Work.

[00:01:33] And she's at the moment the professor of social work at the University of Crittoria in South Africa.

[00:01:44] And secondly, Professor Jung Tan who is the chair of the Global Institute of Social Work and also various other things that perhaps too many to count but he is such a particularly sought after figure and speaker.

[00:02:02] He's the director of the Joy Foundation, Good Harvest International and President of Connections International.

[00:02:09] But he's also been the treasurer of the International Association of Social Workers and a former regional president of that.

[00:02:18] And at the moment he is the president of the Singapore Association of Social Workers.

[00:02:24] Now Jung Tan was actually based at the time of this recording in Thailand.

[00:02:30] Antoinette Lombard was in South Africa.

[00:02:34] Anthony Tan who is hosting it was in Singapore and I was in England.

[00:02:43] So here we go.

[00:02:44] And I hope you find this useful.

[00:02:47] Social work in a precarious world.

[00:02:51] Hi everyone, good to see you.

[00:02:53] Thank you so much for taking time to join us for this global social work talk organized by GISW, IASSW as well as social work podcasts and we bring to you this talk in celebration of the World Social Work Day.

[00:03:10] Even as we are celebrating towards the end of March, I would like to wish our social work friends a happy social work month even as we are practicing the profession from all around the globe.

[00:03:21] So today we have a very exciting program laid out for you in the next one hour with Professor Lombard all the way from South Africa as well as Mr David Niven from United Kingdoms as well as Professor Tan who is currently the president of the United Kingdoms.

[00:03:39] And I'm also the first to be on the same level as the first in Thailand and myself. I'm Terrence from Singapore.

[00:03:47] So today's program, we are going to have a very tight schedule.

[00:03:53] We are going to spend a lot of time over to our speakers with our keynote speaker Professor Lombard from South Africa.

[00:04:03] Professor Lombard is actually the incoming president of the International Association of School of Social Work, and I'm not going to stand between you and her at the top right now so I'm just going to pass the time over to Professor Lombard.

[00:04:18] And I ask of you to put your hands together to just welcome Professor Lombard for her keynote address. Professor Lombard, over to you please.

[00:04:25] Thank you. Good day everyone. It is sincerely a very great honour for me to join you today at your Global Annual Social Work Talk.

[00:04:37] Thank you for the kind invitation and the introduction. I was asked to speak about the topic Global Social Work Agenda in a precarious way, ah world sorry.

[00:04:49] So I'm going to give you a brief introduction on the realities for social work in the fast changing world, the global agenda's vision for a better future, the value of a born with a world view for social work.

[00:05:05] What are the priorities? That's going to be the focus of the talk of social work in the current context and I will end with a conclusion.

[00:05:13] Now if we look at the current reality that social work is in, we cannot afford to be complacent in its approach to the education and practice in a fast changing world.

[00:05:29] Characterised by the Anthropocene era where human activity profoundly influences the global environment and the consequences of the impact are increasingly evident and are felt by both humans and the earth.

[00:05:46] Over the past 14 years, the global agenda for social work and social development has been instrumental to connect people, social work across the globe to fight injustices everywhere, to promote human dignity and equality,

[00:06:05] to strengthen relationships, promote sustainable communities and environments and mobilise action for transformative change.

[00:06:15] To continue making a difference and contributing to transformative change, we require a dynamic living global agenda for social work and social development.

[00:06:28] Now the global agenda is intended to respond to the real-time realities while promoting a vision of hope, inclusion, sustainability, solidarity and peace and safety.

[00:06:50] To succeed in doing this, we need new innovative and inclusive approaches and models to expand social work to deal with a precarious world.

[00:07:03] The current theme of the world social work day that we had and also the global agenda is beyond the verb shared futures for transformative change.

[00:07:16] And this topic, the concept presents social work with a framework to rethink our priorities in playing a role in transformative change that contribute to a better future.

[00:07:31] Now the word beyond the verb originates from Latin America which from a concept meaning Samak Kausay which means good living, a full life.

[00:07:44] In that full life means a person or people living in harmony with their environment.

[00:07:53] Bibraratising the principles of Bienveveur will thus help us to look at critically at the current development models and to adapt and co-design new approaches and innovative interventions with communities for the futures that they want for themselves.

[00:08:13] The principles of Bonvivier is actually resonating very well with the values of social work.

[00:08:21] So the question is what should social work's priorities be if its values are integrated with the principles of Bienveveur?

[00:08:32] So why is Bienveveur relevant to rethinking social work?

[00:08:41] It's a new era of great social change, as Markado says.

[00:08:47] It gives us an anti-colonial world view and it opposes huge consumerism and capitalism.

[00:08:56] It inspires for a radical democratic society where people have meaningful power over political and economic forces.

[00:09:06] And it places no culture or ideologies above any other.

[00:09:12] It draws from indigenous knowledges and experiences.

[00:09:17] So what are these priorities that we should lean on based on Bienveveur?

[00:09:25] Firstly, our priority should be to embrace the human nature balance and promote sustainability.

[00:09:33] And that means that we actually shift social justice to also include environmental and ecological justice.

[00:09:42] In this picture, it's a picture of children by children as well.

[00:09:47] They see the environmental risks in the community here in South Africa.

[00:09:53] And where they pointed out the trash in the river, they said when the floods come where they do in this area, the water level raises.

[00:10:03] And then all the trash in the river blocks the water flows and they are flooded time and again.

[00:10:10] So the land belongs to everyone. That is the Bienveur principle.

[00:10:16] And should be shared in the spirit of Bienveur, land is the basis of everything that people need for their survival.

[00:10:25] However, that means that it's people that should look after the environment including protecting the rivers, the forests and steer away from over consumerism.

[00:10:38] A second priority is to stay grounded in community led interventions, decisions and actions.

[00:10:46] It is about giving people meaningful power over political and economic forces.

[00:10:54] It's about promoting ecological citizenship which in turn, faster sustainability.

[00:11:02] Change starts on a local level where communities and families are deprived of land, of water, of energy and overall of a lack of service delivery

[00:11:14] and where they are left on the own to survive.

[00:11:19] Adopting radical and using radical approaches to injustices everywhere is a huge priority.

[00:11:28] It is about building on approaches what we already have and use in social work, but with an emphasis on solidarity and reciprocity.

[00:11:40] Protests and petitions are important, but it is not enough for transformative change.

[00:11:47] What we need as a priority is to redefine self-sufficiency, not to just provide people with skills and grants and leave them on their own.

[00:11:58] In this picture of the Bolivia community, the woman that works the land is that she knows how to work the land just for what's enough for her survival and not deploy the land.

[00:12:11] The children learn about the land and the earth.

[00:12:15] So self-sufficiently see in social work is really supposed to be in a caring environment until people are confident enough that they know how to survive and have a full life with the skills and the support that they actually received.

[00:12:33] Priority number five, search for and utilize indigenous knowledge and the wisdom in communities.

[00:12:43] That is the core message to work on a founded community-based approach where the community takes responsibility and ownership.

[00:12:55] A priority is also to support communities with information and networking.

[00:13:02] And I want to give an example from the Bolivia community where the government actually decided to build a dam and they did not consult the community.

[00:13:13] So the community was concerned it will not just only displace them, but particularly 13 communities more and in doing so they will lose their land.

[00:13:24] They will lose their survival strategies and they stood together in solidarity to start protesting.

[00:13:33] But they very soon realized that this is not going to be enough.

[00:13:38] They will need external support so the locally linking with the global and that is also the priority and the focus of the global agenda for social work is to link the global and the local intentionally.

[00:13:55] So what they did, they reached out to another country and with an organization that supported them with information which really empowered them.

[00:14:04] And it did not only link them with other organizations in protesting or against consumerism or wasting or taking over their land.

[00:14:19] But also in terms of mining where environmentalists protest against mining the human resource or the natural resources rather from the earth.

[00:14:31] So they were really strengthened across the borders and within Bolivia to actually strengthen their case to resist building the dam.

[00:14:43] Another priority is to engage in policy development and advocate for people, but most importantly to facilitate that people's independently can speak for themselves on policy issues.

[00:14:58] Policies that are founded on principles of beyond the river have the potential to create innovative and inspiring solutions, especially in the face of the environmental and social challenges brought by the Anthropocene.

[00:15:18] Also social work should prioritize mitigation and preparedness faces in disaster time and also not just in terms of natural disasters like fires and earthquakes and floods, but also prioritize that in poverty issues which is also a human made disaster.

[00:15:39] Social work usually is on the responsive side and the recovery building back side.

[00:15:45] So we need to focus on mitigating and preparations to build the resilience of people to be ready to fight back against disasters.

[00:15:54] And the final priority is to develop sustainable partnerships and promote peace building initiatives.

[00:16:01] Without this, all the other priorities in reality cannot really be achieved.

[00:16:08] In conclusion, beyond the work and strength and social work to contribute to social change.

[00:16:15] As part of the global agenda for social work, this concept of beyond the river can link the global with the local as I've explained.

[00:16:25] Of course, there's also criticism against all your world views and that is also for beyond the river, especially as because it's became an institutionalized concept integrated in the constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia, for instance.

[00:16:43] However, becoming a mainstream ideology in these constitutions shows that a society built on beyond the river actually provides us with alternative pillars to neoliberalism.

[00:17:01] And that is at least to think and imagine that another social change world is possible.

[00:17:12] Also beyond the work and assist social work on both global and local levels to renew or develop our new approaches, which are founded on communities draw from indigenous wisdom,

[00:17:25] embark on actions that connect civil society movements and actors and also balance human nature harmony to ensure better futures for us.

[00:17:40] Transformation is about change. It's a process but we should bring visible change and that change can only we can only promote that bond with your world view and social change through for transformation.

[00:17:59] If we start with ourselves as humans understanding the deep connectivity between ourselves and nature and the role that humans play in protecting land and biodiversity for their own survival.

[00:18:18] Starts with our own mindsets, attitudes and actions first as people and then as social workers. It will make the transfer to adopting beyond the river as a social work approach, a natural and logic idea to create the

[00:18:38] impetus we need for shared futures through transformation and transformative change.

[00:18:47] Finally, let us unite together in the global agenda to actually stand together for transformative change for a better future. So thank you very much for the opportunity to share these ideas with you.

[00:19:02] Thank you so much for Professor Lombard for this sharing really with regard to our world social work agenda.

[00:19:10] So, maybe just at this juncture, give Professor Lombard a round of applause and I would like to just invite our next speaker which is Mr David Neven to and understand that Mr David Neven actually has more than 40 years

[00:19:31] of social experience and with running a professional podcast for social workers for the past 20 years.

[00:19:38] Thank you, Terence. Thank you very much. Yeah, 40 years sounds an awful long time doesn't it? If I just tell everybody I started when I was four maybe that would be easier perhaps.

[00:19:46] Anyway look what are the challenges in such a precarious world this is the question we're asked where to start. Well in these decades that I've been a social worker things have either changed slowly or not at all in many cases.

[00:19:58] And some of the cause of that has been the perceptions in the media that social work hasn't been able to persuade people of the value of our work.

[00:20:07] So correction of this would be definitely on my agenda for change.

[00:20:12] My work when I was in practice was mainly involved with safeguarding and I have to say that I've constantly watched my profession defending itself in the court of media opinion.

[00:20:23] And it was this imbalance that caused me to start the podcast thoughts on the social world or the social world podcast.

[00:20:31] And I've done it now for over 10 years and 155 programs.

[00:20:35] And I believe that having a more balanced view of social work is not vanity.

[00:20:39] And it's not trying to strengthen our professional egos, but it can help improve trust at these crucial first points of contact between the social worker and the new citizen who might be in trouble.

[00:20:52] So what I intended was to allow excellent guests an opportunity to share their experiences and their predictions.

[00:21:00] And this became increasingly multi agency and international as it reflected the shrinking world and the consolidation of practice with agencies working much more closely together.

[00:21:12] So subjects that I've been privileged and uncertain about sometimes to talk about include those emerging threats to our most vulnerable citizens.

[00:21:22] Human trafficking, modern day slavery, county lines in the UK, missing children in Europe, social work in Ukraine and other stories from there reflecting human dislocation and loss of care because of the war.

[00:21:37] I talked about the initiative training social workers as first responders already working well in China attending tsunamis and earthquakes with emergency services and practicing social work at the same time, but also dealing with large scale human traffic human tragedies that we all know too much about already.

[00:21:59] But then if you add in the increase in slave labor and supply chains for many of our large companies, organized crime radicalization, spiritual abuse, domestic violence, suicide prevention and sex tourism just to name a few.

[00:22:17] It just exponentially grows in terms of the areas that social work has to now practice in.

[00:22:23] And overall, unfortunately, the internet is the engine room of risk in so many cases and increasingly sophisticated resources are needed to combat its grip on the vulnerable.

[00:22:37] A basic understanding of the danger should be part of social work training.

[00:22:43] So the backdrop to packed agendas and more identify threats to the vulnerable seems to me to make the allocation of resources more and more complicated.

[00:22:54] Around every corner in local authorities, police stations, health, voluntary sector offices as well as social services offices, there are constant judgments of Solomon taking place.

[00:23:06] And that process happens as much within complex safeguarding in some of the cases that I mentioned, as any other.

[00:23:12] So whether the glass is half full or half empty, there's still half a glass missing.

[00:23:17] But we have to ask ourselves this.

[00:23:21] If you take into account the chronic existence of forced diasporas around the globe and those social workers who work with large communities of survivors and then add all that social workers do in combating risk and need in all forms to all age groups.

[00:23:37] What tectonic shifts of resources must be found?

[00:23:41] And where are they coming from?

[00:23:43] So I fully appreciate the different challenges in providing social work to different continents and that social work does have different structures in different settings.

[00:23:53] But for today, I just ask that we consider common challenges.

[00:23:57] The vulnerable have been exploited for a long period of time and new threats are emerging all the time.

[00:24:07] Now, for me in the UK, a constant theme has been how the wider public see social work and treat the profession.

[00:24:14] And I think there's a direct correlation between this and how social workers are able to be effective in engaging the community.

[00:24:24] Recognition of the value of today's myriad of media platforms in educating the public still lags way behind what it could be.

[00:24:34] I mean, such a high percentage of the populations get their news and opinions from some form of media or other broadcast written social.

[00:24:42] And I'm sure this applies globally.

[00:24:44] When I was elected the National Chair of our Association in the UK, I was catapulted into situations with the media and had no advice or training.

[00:24:53] And I had to learn the hard way in responding to them.

[00:24:57] And I saw the different levels of respect and engagement with social workers.

[00:25:04] So was it the evolution of media that catered so much to the lowest common denominator, conditioning the public to accept simplistic explanations?

[00:25:14] Or what was it this adaptive atmosphere of blame that sold the stories?

[00:25:21] A public stoning was considered far more exciting than a little bit of good praise.

[00:25:26] And in these 40 years I have never seen a headline that says social worker does good job.

[00:25:32] So we all know people who are inspirational within social work, who command respect and who can speak with clarity and understanding about what we do and why we're needed.

[00:25:46] However, over the years I've only seen a few have been recognized outside the profession on the national stages and given a balanced hearing.

[00:25:56] Anyway, challenges come thick and fast with specializations and training demands multiplying to supplement the core skills of social work.

[00:26:06] And the way that safeguarding just to use my own area of work has evolved over a few decades is one of these complex challenges and so we're back to having to admit again and again that we need more and more specialist knowledge.

[00:26:19] So finally, my agenda for social work.

[00:26:23] One, much more inter-country communication than now to share ideas between social work agencies that can help resolve difficult areas of work.

[00:26:33] Borrow from the neighbors, it makes good sense.

[00:26:36] Secondly, a systematic analysis of contemporary communications in the media with the emphasis on demonstrating all round value of social work using its great number of success stories to illustrate this.

[00:26:54] Thirdly, continued current lobbying for resources to meet the need and emphasizing savings to governments including cost benefit analysis are preventative work is excellent in many parts of the world.

[00:27:07] And it's saving so much money in the medium and the long term.

[00:27:11] And people just don't understand it.

[00:27:13] They've got the short term view of the world.

[00:27:16] Anyway, however, overarching all of it high on that agenda would be an increase in the resources available for training.

[00:27:25] We need social workers to be trained and resourced to understand and to offer their skills to all the new emerging areas of concern.

[00:27:34] We need to train more informed media capable spokespeople and we need to claim and consolidate our place in the public eye.

[00:27:44] So I just like the social work community in the world to access and use all my podcast 155 programs are all free.

[00:27:54] And the catalog, the back catalog is always available to universities and so on.

[00:27:59] And I would also like the GISW to welcome it and add it to their library.

[00:28:05] Thank you very much indeed for listening.

[00:28:11] Thank you so much for Mr. David.

[00:28:14] And indeed, it is so important for social workers to be skilled and competent in being able to engage the media in this society where things are moving so quickly.

[00:28:26] Right. And actually the next speaker that we're going to invite is someone who is wearing many different hats and among the hats that

[00:28:39] the speaker is actually wearing is actually the president and chair of the global Institute of Social Work.

[00:28:46] And maybe just give a round of applause also to Professor Tan Nautil. Thank you so much, Chef.

[00:28:55] Thank you very much, Terence.

[00:28:59] I will do the chess screen now.

[00:29:13] So we conceptualize the idea of social work agenda in the precarious world.

[00:29:21] We are thinking about what's happening in the world today that is really catching us at off guard as well as a difficult time for many, many countries and people.

[00:29:39] Because the recent pandemic that has bolt over the precariousness of that it has caused human lives, caused many people to be unable to move from country to country, cause many families to be disrupted.

[00:30:04] And then on top of that we have the Ukraine war and then the recent crisis in the Middle East, Gaza and Israel.

[00:30:16] And I think all this causes the world to really turn around in a topsy-turvy way and economic upheavals, whether it is the stock market or just the inflation that has caught in many countries, prices of food has gone skyrocketed.

[00:30:44] And so as we reflect, we wonder whether the world is in entropy.

[00:30:52] Entropy meaning that it is going downhill and it will not be able to survive.

[00:31:01] As what our earlier speakers say in our entropine, entrosyne world, there is not just natural disaster that besets us but also the man-made disasters of war and the area of environment being polluted.

[00:31:25] And the world really going into a spin of a negative nature.

[00:31:33] The role then of social work is to bring back goodness.

[00:31:38] How can social work respond in times of crisis, in times of war and how can we bring peace in the midst of conflict?

[00:31:49] How many when there are distortions in human relationships can we restore life and not just life but a quality of life in this precarious world.

[00:32:04] And I think that is our challenge.

[00:32:07] My thinking and my writing has been on how can we have radical change.

[00:32:15] I am not proposing that social workers do same-same, same old stuff.

[00:32:24] In a way, social workers have been in the forefront in the last decade maybe in the last century, maybe in the last millennium even.

[00:32:38] I mean 100 years of a life of social work brings us to the early 1900s and the late 1800s, the beginning of social work.

[00:32:53] I think we need a more comprehensive strategy, not just social workers moving to patch up when problems are there but also social workers thinking through the whole process of transformation and change.

[00:33:14] As said earlier by our very eloquent speakers, we need not just change but radical change.

[00:33:27] We need comprehensive strategy that foster development from the basic to the macro level, from the individual level, family level to the policy and structural change.

[00:33:45] And therefore social workers must not be of the mind that they are the saviours of the world.

[00:33:52] Social workers must certainly be very interdisciplinary, cross professional because we cannot do it alone and there must be great collaboration and teamwork which was already said by Antonette in a very eloquent way.

[00:34:13] That we must be about relationship, connecting with people, bringing about peace and change in a more strategic and comprehensive way.

[00:34:26] So in writing this book on remaking social work for the new era, we are in the brink of whether social work can perform, can bring forth a difference.

[00:34:42] And I would say that social works can if we can get upstream in our strategy, learn about technology, learn about economic intervention, learn about political and cultural aspects of development.

[00:35:07] And I think we must use the latest of the tools whether it's chat GPT, AI, I believe social workers should and actually the Global Institute of Social Work is about bringing training at the fingertip when it's needed most to those who need it.

[00:35:27] And so online training, development sharing of the latest resources to bring about change in a dramatic way. I think we owe it to society to transform the world together as catalyst, bringing about a better future and a better world.

[00:35:50] Thank you very much.

[00:35:56] Thank you so much Professor Tan for sharing again, really indeed with some of the challenges that's happening such as the war down Gaza and the different pandemic that's happening.

[00:36:10] Social workers need to continue to stay relevant with all the different changes. So at this current juncture while we are have heard the real speakers who have shared with us on how social work need to continue to evolve and to stay relevant.

[00:36:33] And we'd like to just open this time to any questions that the participants may have. So I've actually received a question right now through my phone. So, and the first question is actually for Professor Tan.

[00:36:50] Professor Tan, what is, what do you think might be one of the most important emphasis for social workers in actually addressing some of the challenges that's happening. What's the main priority that we need to do as social workers?

[00:37:08] Well, we know that social workers are change agent, not change agents. And therefore we must not just promote status quo, but we must be about radical approach dealing with social economic, social environmental, social political agendas.

[00:37:32] Does it mean then social workers have to march on the street? Does it mean that social workers have to be dealing with economic planning and strategies? I believe social workers are called in many different ways.

[00:37:52] And they are able to deal with the conditions at different levels. I think for what you have been trained, you must do your best because we need people in the foreground. We also need people in the background.

[00:38:10] But people in the foreground must always be thinking that this is not a fighting fire approach, but there must be underlying causal factors that can be remedied in a structural way.

[00:38:27] And therefore the people at the structural level must always consider the policies that are implemented. How has it impacted the ground level? And for example, just the COVID measures that have been implemented by government, how does it impact the down and out citizens that can survive the trauma

[00:38:57] crisis? And I think we need to empower people to bring about changes that can control their lives and livelihood. And so therefore I would say power to the people as well as power to one, empower to the community as a strategy to bringing about change.

[00:39:19] Thank you so much, Professor Tan. We have a question that is raised by Mr Patrick Liu and I'd like to direct this question to Professor Lombard. How can social workers develop insights and skills outside of the traditional realm of expertise coming from the School of Social Work?

[00:39:39] How can we equip social workers to develop insights and skills to stay relevant?

[00:39:48] Yes, thank you. For me the most important thing is to know exactly what is happening in the world. I think that is the first part because if we want to really try and social workers that are relevant, we have to know what is happening.

[00:40:06] And I think all the speakers today, I think the message is core. We know what the precarious world look like. And we need to understand that and I always told my own students how important it is to look at the news, to understand the context, etc.

[00:40:25] And for people to have that economic power, etc., our students need to understand that their knowledge and skills start with what Paula Freire also says, the consciousness understanding that it's not for them and for social workers to tell people what to do, but to be led by people.

[00:40:48] So I think if the basics of understanding the context and what it's all about, if students can understand that start where the people are, whether you're in a position of psychosocial trauma, whether you're in a disaster context, wherever you are, use your skills, your knowledge base, your practice experience to start where they are and move with them so that they can know the power.

[00:41:14] And that comes really with a good curriculum that will give people the relevant skills, but also the relevant practice training in the field well supervised by experienced supervisors.

[00:41:29] Let me stop there. Thanks.

[00:41:32] Thank you so much Professor Lombard and indeed it's so important for social workers to stay relevant to know what's happening around the world so that we can continue to take action.

[00:41:42] I have a question right now for Mr David and Mr David winning running the podcast for the past 20 over years.

[00:41:51] What are some effective strategies that you have actually uncovered to share with the audience on how social workers may engage the media to be able to send out messages that would that is important, because engaging the media is a skillful affair which is not easy for many of us.

[00:42:13] Well, thank you for the question. I just think that there's a need for social work in just about every aspect of the human condition that I see it our skills are very, very broad based.

[00:42:25] But when it comes to the media, it seems generally that they tend to look more on the negative side of things rather than the positive side and so it is going to be still quite an effort to continue to try and balance the scales.

[00:42:39] I think, however, though that if you take it that a new case, a new situation arises where there's talk of a children say at risk and the social worker has to go and engage that family.

[00:42:51] If there's a little bit better balance in that local community about understanding social work, not just the negative but the successes that we have as well, then just that little bit of extra trust can be gained and getting over the doorstep

[00:43:07] to actually work with that family can be that little bit easier.

[00:43:11] And therefore I think how we see ourselves and how the world sees us is a vital part of helping us gain trust.

[00:43:19] And so if you like that media broadcast media written media social media wherever if it's a shop window, we need to be in that shop window and and in an experienced and a professional way.

[00:43:35] And we need to claim our space there with all the other professions and agencies so that we are not just considered to be second class professions.

[00:43:45] And I think that is incredibly important because we're not second class impression. We are a first class profession, and we need to actually shout that from the rooftops.

[00:43:55] Thank you Mr David and indeed so important for us to also show show our presence right because I think there are many professionals who are wanting to respond.

[00:44:12] And I think a social workers which is so cool as part of us is change agent. There's a key role that we're doing.

[00:44:18] I have an expression that have came to me, which is asking how can we effectively collaborate with system such as the government or the private organization to look at making some of these changes because sometimes collaborations can be difficult.

[00:44:36] So how can social workers be mobilizing communities in such collaborative effort.

[00:44:42] Yeah, I just opened this to anyone who might be happy to respond on this.

[00:44:50] I think internet will be really good to respond but her video is off.

[00:44:59] My thinking is that collaboration must be a two way traffic.

[00:45:04] It's that we are partners but we must be able to say where are the strengths of each partner and how can we work together even though there may be other differences, but we can have a common goal.

[00:45:21] And I think for example just collaborating with the community.

[00:45:27] Now in Thailand in the joy foundation, we have to be very down to earth. What is it in there for the community and how can they improve their own livelihood in working together and therefore there is an element of trust which was set earlier, but there's

[00:45:48] an element of building that relationship and assessing each other's strengths and weaknesses and being able to complement and strategize together.

[00:46:01] I think over to internet.

[00:46:03] Thank you, John, you said it so well.

[00:46:11] But you know for me that also links with the global agenda for social worker development globally, because when we started with a global agenda in 2010.

[00:46:23] And the first 10 years also we've got the evidence in the full reports that's also available on the websites was really to link social work with NGOs with communities and with government and use the platforms that that you know the world

[00:46:40] and the work days. And particularly also David said it so well actually I made a note of that, because we also, you know when we write about petition letters etc to government.

[00:46:52] We usually, you know talk about the vulnerability but to include the best practice the success stories of what we achieving as first class profession as as you've expressed.

[00:47:04] And that is what the global agenda is it's about coming together and share. And in two years time when we have the conference on the topic beyond the world conference in Kenya, the idea will be come was best practice examples and share of course there's always

[00:47:21] but particularly also in things of government and governments that's really like in countries where it's written in our human rights bill that we should provide social and social economic needs, and the government should be held accountable etc.

[00:47:39] There's always that backdoor of provided the resources and the facilities and going into the, the communities role of stopping entitled feeling entitled to is to start working collaboratively collaboratively.

[00:47:55] And we've seen that now in terms of ecological citizenship as well, where people say we can't wait for government to do everything. We need to go into that partnership show both ways that we trust one another and we both together in terms of tackling the structurally structural issues.

[00:48:15] I in no ways want to say that government should not be held accountable for the citizens at all, specifically the vulnerable. But I think we are moving to a country where this Anthropocene and what's happening with us in climate change and with people and the earth.

[00:48:32] The earth will bounce back. Richard Attenborough nicely explained that in his work too. After earthquakes after Chernobyl, the earth burst through the cement that close the transport rails they just burst back, but humans need to look after the earth to survive.

[00:48:50] And I think now ever like in the war if we just look at how the earth and humans and relationships and are destroyed. We all need one another on all levels now to save our society and our humans and our earth. Thank you.

[00:49:07] Can I, can I make a comment?

[00:49:10] Yes, please David.

[00:49:15] You chose a very interesting day today is Monday Thursday so I got to talk to you shortly.

[00:49:22] I was very impressed with all your presentations in particular.

[00:49:27] David Nevins, I think we can learn a lot from David Nevins because too much of our social plans activities and all are not out in the engagement outside and David's engagement with his podcast and all is a very activist way to engage it.

[00:49:51] If not, we stand very invisible, somewhat invisible and somewhat removed.

[00:49:57] And maybe we can get David to come to a few of our other territories where we can engage these kind of initiatives because this is the normal way that everybody is relating to and we should take advantage of that.

[00:50:15] Other than that, we began to talk amongst ourselves, which is in a way is very useful, but it doesn't reach our clientele and the clientele are very, very including as what David says, the marginalized and vulnerable.

[00:50:33] These are the people who really need us really badly.

[00:50:38] Thanks.

[00:50:40] Could I say something about that, Terence?

[00:50:44] Can I just thank Anthony for his kind words? It's nice to hear a kindred spirit.

[00:50:53] But a very quick word is to do with what Antoinette was talking about, collaboration.

[00:50:59] The world is so small and I think we've got to be careful and realize that, for example, we wear clothes, we eat food.

[00:51:10] That's the process of results of slavery, slave labor in other parts of the world.

[00:51:16] We're all connected.

[00:51:18] We've all got this common responsibility to talk about things and to point things out.

[00:51:24] Human trafficking and anti-slavery is half a trillion pound a year business and social workers pick up the pieces at the very end of it.

[00:51:36] And we must do more working with organized crime and against organized crime, working with law enforcement, NGOs, etc.

[00:51:44] I'll stop there but just I just wanted to pick these points up about collaboration in a very small world.

[00:51:52] Thank you David and indeed I agree with Anthony that it is so important for us to get the message out, right?

[00:51:59] To be outward facing rather than just looking towards the profession itself.

[00:52:04] But I think social workers have a lot more to learn and to do in terms of being able to share our views, being able to advocate,

[00:52:14] meaning the voice in this fast changing world.

[00:52:19] And maybe even as we wrap up, may I just also invite every speaker to also share with us what may be one core of action that you might have to our audience

[00:52:30] with regards to how social workers could be a lot more effective in this precarious world moving on ahead.

[00:52:37] David, would you like to start us off?

[00:52:40] You're going to start with me. One thing.

[00:52:43] Well, I've got to go back again and actually say a huge investment in training.

[00:52:49] It's never going to do as bad.

[00:52:51] It's never going to be a bad thing.

[00:52:53] And that training has got to accept all the new frontiers that we're facing because a bit like people have said, Anthony echoed it as well there.

[00:53:02] You know, the world is such an instant judgment place with the media that you know, we have quite a lot of time to catch up because normally we're a very slow and thoughtful profession

[00:53:16] and slow and thoughtful and instant judgment necessarily don't go to bed together.

[00:53:21] So I think effectively we've got to change a little bit about how we operate and how we come across as well as how much training we actually can add to our work at the moment.

[00:53:37] Thanks, David. What about Prof Tan?

[00:53:44] Yes, I think I like to leave the last word to internet. That's why I come in first.

[00:53:51] But I think the key areas that we are facing the world today is conflict.

[00:53:57] The key of finding peace is justice.

[00:54:02] The key to deal with conflict in its essence is to learn to be in a relationship that is authentic, that does not hide behind facades that has true empathy and respect and difference and understanding that human dignity and freedom is at the core.

[00:54:32] And therefore I would allude to say what is the key to bringing about a better world, a less precarious and more harmonious one is that we must be at the core, the values that drives us.

[00:54:50] And that value must transform into action that really hold human dignity, human freedom, human life in its core as sacred and that we will do our best at whichever level to ensure that there is a better world for all of us,

[00:55:18] not some only.

[00:55:22] Thank you so much Prof Tan for that exhortation. And finally, I'd like to hear from our keynote speaker, Professor Lombard with regard to what may be your word of advice for the audience here right now.

[00:55:38] Over to you, Professor Lombard.

[00:55:40] Thank you Terence. David and Tion said it so beautifully summarized. But yes, I think standing out for me too if I look at the reality of the society today in terms of people destroying one another with a conflict, we destroying the earth, we destroying the conflict, the hatred, etc.

[00:56:03] And looking at my own life and development as as a in over the past decade also since see a certain distance I've been involved with the global agenda for social work and social development over the past 14 years.

[00:56:17] It's really growing to understand exactly what is this comprehensive social change transformation actually inquire of us. And you know it we can be vulnerable on different in terms of human trafficking, self death scenarios, the marriage that on various contexts of South Africa.

[00:56:41] But if we, on top of that, given the, the natural disasters and the ongoing human made disasters like the trafficking and the, and the poverty and the inequalities.

[00:56:56] On top of that, if we don't start to understand that planet and humans are need to find harmony again with the principles like Ubuntu which was a previous theme of the global agenda, which linked very well with beyond the ver and with other concepts in other countries.

[00:57:17] And for me myself by by really starting to see whoever's vulnerable in front of me broader, where do you live? What are the external factors? What is your food security? What is the poverty environment? No water, no energy conflict to feel too unsafe.

[00:57:38] Older people save our filters unsafe to leave my home, even young people. Then I understand that to to be with that that vulnerabilities. Let's start to understand that we also need to have harmony and with our nature and with our people.

[00:57:55] And that shifted and started to shift social work very much also since the first decade of the global agenda when we had the theme of promoting sustainable communities and environment.

[00:58:07] On that note, I want to say let's keep connected. I agree with David on the global agenda. Let's let's keep abreast of the trends and yes, let us show the world out there what we are doing social work with others and with other communities.

[00:58:24] Thanks.

[00:58:25] Thank you so much. That's such a beautiful wrap up and before we end, please join me in giving our tree as team speaker around of applause. Really, I think it's really calling us to call of action.

[00:58:37] And before we go on behalf of organizers, I just want to thank you for taking time to join us. And our organizers have like to hear from you in terms of feedback for the session.

[00:58:49] And I'd like to invite my colleague to share screen with regard to the QR code for this feedback session.

[00:58:56] Thank you.