Abstract
World Social Work Day 2015 at UNAIDS
World Social Work Day falls each year on the third Tuesday of March. This is a significant occasion for the global social work organisations, International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) to make the activities, and contributions of social work visible and the voice of social work heard. This year the celebration was held on 17 March 2015 together with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva in a one day seminar titled, “End the AIDS epidemic: Restore dignity and respect for all”. This was the first collaborative event with UNAIDS after the signing of the joint MoU with IASSW.
This seminar focused on the role of social work in working with people to prevent and mitigate the impact of HIV and how the social work profession could contribute to ending AIDS by 2030. Special attention was given to:
The role of social work principles and values in promoting human dignity and rights, social justice and social development and effective delivery of health and social services including HIV services;
The importance of social security as indispensable for everyone’s dignity including those living with and most affected by HIV;
The importance of social protection systems guaranteeing basic income and access to education and health care (ILO Rec. 202 on Social Protection Floors) including HIV services as foundations for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development.
Resource persons from the World Bank, International Labour Organization (ILO), UNDP India and World Food Programme (WFP) participated and shared their work on HIV, social protection and working with social workers. People living with and most affected by HIV, government actors and civil society representatives also participated in the meeting. The participants affirmed the importance of social work organisations and professionals to join UNAIDS in joint actions for ending the AIDS epidemic by restoring and promoting dignity, guaranteeing access to social protection, scaling up access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all, and accelerating actions for developing an HIV vaccine and a cure.
The seminar ended with a ‘‘Common statement on Joint Action between UNAIDS and Social Work Organizations Ending Aids, Promoting Dignity and Respect for All” outlined below.
1. Introduction
World Social Work Day falls each year on the third Tuesday of March. This is a significant occasion each year for the global social work organisations, International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) to make the activities, and contributions of social work visible and the voice of social work heard. This year the celebration is being held on 17 March 2015 together with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva to join their efforts to accelerate ending the AIDS epidemic and restore dignity and respect for all.
2. We recognise that
We the social work organisations note the impressive results the AIDS response has attained through the leadership of UNAIDS and partners in the past 3 decades. We recognise that:
There are gaps and there are people who are more at risk, more vulnerable and more affected by HIV than others due to exclusion and discrimination. These include people living with HIV, adolescent girls and young women, children and pregnant women living with HIV, prisoners, migrants and displaced people, people who inject drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, people with disabilities and people aged 50 and older (Gap Report, 2014);
AIDS does not exist in isolation, nor does it only relate to health. Treating AIDS as an isolated issue is not adequate. People are connected to their families and communities, societies and legal environments all of which are affected by, and affect HIV. Integrated approaches that address the whole person in the context of their total environment are necessary to address issues of physical health, nutrition, psychological support, education, human rights and freedom, social security as well as economic and development opportunities (Gap Report, 2014);
Social workers contribute significantly to such an integrated approach as they work daily with marginalised, poor, disadvantaged and discriminated populations to promote the realisation of human, economic, social and cultural rights and to further social justice;
They work in all sorts of social and health services in hospitals, schools, prisons, com- munity centres etc. and co-operate with other social professions, civil servants and volunteers in governmental or non-governmental settings on communal, regional, national, and international levels;
Social workers work with the whole person in their family, community and environment, and they address the physical, social, emotional, mental and psychological needs that often accompany the trauma of HIV infection or affection;
Social workers facilitate access to social and health services for HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support;
Social workers advocate with those in power, and through their practice and research, contribute to reconstruct people’s and communities lives, including those living with and most affected by HIV, and they provide a voice for the voiceless for medium and long-term inclusive social development.
3. Call for
By engaging schools of social work, academia and professional social work organisations in the global effort “Getting to Zero” to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 we join UNAIDS and partners in calling for:
Intensifying efforts on the development of an HIV cure and vaccine to protect and restore dignity for all including those people who are poor, excluded and marginalised and for whom getting infected with HIV and dying from AIDS related deaths maybe inevitable;
Developing a prominent goal in the post 2015 agenda for ending the AIDS epidemic, TB and malaria and other diseases of poverty and inequality by 2030 with requisite institutional and financial backing;
Increasing the prominence of social protection programs and policy in the new UNAIDS strategy to maximise synergies and enhance the effectiveness of HIV prevention and treatment programs;
Non-discrimination for all including people living with and most affected by HIV through shaping public and civil society policy for effective social protection, including attention on orphans and vulnerable children, adolescents, the decriminalization of marginalised populations such as MSM, sex workers, and people who use drugs, and migrants;
Increasing training, motivation and deployment of social workers and to areas with the greatest needs including peri-urban areas and rural areas and requesting recognition, remuneration and incentive plans for those cadres of the social service workforce who are not recognised by a country’s formal health care systems.
4. Intensify and expand partnership
We commit to:
Encouraging co-operation at regional and country levels through joint actions between UNAIDS local representatives and IASSW and IFSW with a worldwide net of social work organisations of professionals, educators and scientists;
Educating, orienting, sensitizing and engaging the worldwide network of social workers in the different streams of work on ending the AIDS epidemic and restoring dignity for all;
Applying the principles of Social Work in the AIDS response by protecting and promoting the rights and dignity of all people in accessing HIV prevention, treatment, care and sup- port and other social services in the varied field of practice where social workers engage.