International Association of Schools of Social Work
President's Report (July - December 2020)
Dear Colleagues,
I hope I find all of you and your loved ones in good health. It has been a terrible year andalthough we are hoping that vaccine will be helpful in fighting the virus, there is still muchto do in the future months to protect ourselves and be assured that all people in the world
have access to the vaccine.
In a world that wants to erect walls, the virus has shown us that borders do not exist andonce again this confirms the importance of reinforcing the international dimension of social
work education and practice.
It’s a pleasure for me to present my first report, July - December 2020 for my second termas President. Thank you for your trust and support and I hope to fulfill your expectations.
The board meeting and the General Assembly were successfully organized in an on-line
format in July 2020.
The last six months were marked by the COVID Pandemic having an impact at different
levels. The physical distancing has been replaced by an increasing virtual closeness.
IA Officers and Committee Chairs have continued their work on line, Rashmi has managed
the association, Agnes worked on Social media posts and we have planned different
initiatives.
Committee Chairs will be submitting their reports but I will include some in my report aswell. Some of the activities that we have been involved with are:Tripartite Committee
IASSW, ICSW and IFSW have had different meetings and email exchanges during thesemonths on different topics such as the: Global Agenda, 2022 and 2024 International
Conferences and future cooperation among the three organizations.
 The general frame for the Global Agenda, and the first topic has been defined andwas launched at the beginning of November. I want to wholeheartedly thankAntoinette Lombard and Angie Yuen for their important contribution to the Global
Agenda Task Force and also Abye Tasse for his leadership and significant mediation
activities in his role as coordinator of the Task Force.
 There was a through discussion on the future of the 2022 International Conference
including representation from Panama. The Tripartite decision was to plan an
online conference for 2022 due to the uncertainty of the future of the Coronavirus.
Although the vaccination process can start, it will be difficult to have a homogeneous
vaccination coverage worldwide and, moreover, the critical economic situation
would not allow many people to afford the costs of a trip and participation fees.

Once again thank you to Vishanthie Sewpaul who is our contact person withPanama, in name of the Tripartite group.
The new Tripartite Memorandum of Agreement is still pending, because although
the text was approved in our meeting in London in January 2020, IFSW reports that
their Executive Committee wants to simplify it. We haven’t received their proposal.
Our last meeting followed the elections held in November for the President and theExecutive Director for ICSW. Eva Holmberg-Herrström and Tom Johannesen
introduced the new President Sang-Mok Suh from South Korea and the Executive
Director Antonio Lopez from Spain. We have had a supportive and effective
working relationship with ICSW in the past several years, and I hope that we cancontinue this level cooperation in the future.

Rimini conference
As you know after having postponed the conference to November, due to the generalsituation of the pandemic, we were forced to cancel the conference.
It has been a really painful process, as all the elements for an incredibly successful event(around 1400 abstract received, 1200 approved, many social initiatives planned in the city)were in place.
Following advice from legal counsel, it was not possible to clearly inform the public of thecancelation, while negotiating the conference organizers (IA and IC) obligation to pay theconference venue and all other service providers. The formal notice was released at the endof the litigation process.
MV congress was able to negotiate no penalty for canceling the venue, the contracts withthe different providers of services and the pre-booking of the hotel. We do have to pay forservices that had been completed.
Adhering to the contract, the primary cost will be covered 50% each by IASSW and ICSW,and the Italian associations are responsible for 8000 Euros. This was the agreement thatwas determined after IFSW decided to organize their own conference in Calgary.
The cost for IASSW and ICSW will be approximately 31,000 Euros, that we will pay in three
installments: two in 2021 (January and September) and the last in 2022.
In order not to lose the richness of the contributions presented, we decided to carry out aseries of initiatives to be reported by Tiong.
World Social Work Day 2021
The poster for the WSWD 2021 was prepared by IFSW and has been co-branded by IA.
For the moment, there are plans for celebrating the WSWD at the UN in Geneva and I’ve
been invited to participate. No other information from New York and Bangkok has been
received at this time.

COVID 19 initiatives
The webpage with social work stories, new and updates, and teaching experiences havebeen regularly uploaded by Rashmi, with review by Lena Dominelli.
David McNabb, Chair of the International Projects Committee in collaboration with LenaDominelli launched a successful call for International Projects on COVID 19. 4 projects wereselected.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to actualize the initiative proposed to the Board inagreement with Darla Coffey, Chair of the Capacity Building Committee to discuss the effectof COVID 19 in specific areas. Both leaders of the two proposals selected - a zoom meeting
led by Shajahan on "on line teaching" and another by Anneline Keet on "older adults" –were too busy and couldn’t fulfil the task .
WebsiteWe have continued to improve the website and we have plans to develop it more user
friendly. Agnes Yuen IASSW communication manager is working on plan and hopefully she
will be able to bring some innovative ideas. Of course, IASSW website is having allimportant functionalities with prompt support of Rashmi Pandey and Preshit Deorukhkar IASSW website manager.
Task Force on Global Standard
The document finalized by the Task Force has been officially launched and disseminatedthrough google groups and published on the website. Thank you to Dixon Sookraj for hisleadership and colleagues that offered their feedback. This is only the beginning of aprocess of implementation that we have to discuss how to implement in our association.
During these past six months, I’ve had skype meetings with Officers, Rashmi and Agnes andsome Committee Chairs to enhance our activities.

I would also like to highlight my participation to many different initiatives:
July
31st lecture for SOSNET (Finland) on International dimension of social work
23rd meeting in French on Global Agenda
August8th introduction at the 2nd conference Digital transformation and social work issues(scientific research- practice- education-training) Helwan University
10th lecture “Contribución de la educación en trabajo social para losObjectivos Desarollo Sustentable” for Universidad de Concepción, Chile
12 th speech at Youth Changemakers Conclave organised by Social Work Times andChangemakers Foundation on the UN International Youth Day

31st speech in opening social work course academic year for Universidad Catholica
Valparaiso

September
9th speech at Acto inaugural “El COVID 19 y la transformacion de las comunidades en elsiglo XXI” - UNAM

20th video for website Nodo de Trabajo Social de Grupo and foreword for the book25th speech “Social work education ed emergenza COVID: Cenni da una prospettivainternazionale” in SOCISS - Il servizio sociale in condizioni di distanziamento fisico
25th video for 75 years of Valparaiso Catholic University
25th video for CONETS (Consejo Nacional para la Educacion enTrabajo Social) assembly
28th meeting in Spanish on Global Agenda
29th IASSW presentation to AUETS (Asociación Universitaria Española de Trabajo Social)
October
1st video for 35° year social work school Fundación Universitaria MonserrateUnimonserrate,
5/6 meeting with Nordic RRC
16/17 speech “Dalla 1° conferenza internazionale di servizio sociale allo sviluppo delladimensione internazionale” in Le radici del welfare- Sostoss
30th seminar Modica University on Ethical principles of social work
November
1st welcome CASWE (Chinese Association Social Work Educators) for Symposium COVID
19th speech“La garantía de Derechos digitales para la ciudadanía” at Trabajo Social Digital— Digital Social Work- UNED

20th Valedictory in Growing Global Interdependence in International Social Work” Madras
Christian College

20th in Estado de la cuestión sobre el TSG Internacional: Investigación, producción
académica y práctica profesional
20th interview for UNED channelDecember
2nd lecture on “International dimension of social work”- University of Zagreb
2nd speech “El rol de la Asociación Internacional de las Escuelas de Trabajo Social ante lapandemia y la futura preparación de los trabajadores sociales” in the seminar Soledad,duelo, dolor y muerte en tiempos de pandemia. Una perspectiva desde la profesión -UNED.

3rd speech “Social work in time of crises” in University and society: building bridgesT@SK Tirana University
3rd speech “El rol del Trabajo Social ante la crisis y la futura preparación de lostrabajadores sociales” in conference Nuevos paradigmas y desafios de trabajo social anterealidades complejas: investigacion y modelos de intervencion sociales- Asociación
Mexicana de Instituciones Educativas de Trabajo Social
4th IASSW Presentation in the meeting of the Red de Escuelas de Trabajo Social del Consejo
de Rectores de Universidades Chilenas
10th meeting with Hugh Salmon, President of Global Social Service Workforce Alliance
I look forward to your feedback on my report and I wish you a healthy and peaceful 2021!
Respectfully submitted

Prof. Annamaria Campanini
President, International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)