GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
July 2008
In this edition:
New President of ICSW – Christian Rollet
New Vice President - Charles Abbey
Management Committee
Supervisory and Advisory Board
Directions for ICSWNew President of ICSW – Christian Rollet
Christian Rollet of France is now the President of ICSW. In accepting the position
Christian said that ICSW has a very rich 80 year history of which he is proud.
Christian comes to the position with an extensive experience in the field of social
policy. He has been the Director of the National School of Public Health for sevenyears and has been appointed as the Head of the General Inspectorate for Social
Affairs for another seven years. In Europe he has been the Regional President of
the Association of Schools of Public Health. Christian has undertaken many
missions related to social protection in developing countries including Brazil,Indonesia, or Morocco.
In accepting the position of President Christian paid tribute to Solveig Askjem.
“She has been a marvellous President who took over at a hard time. With her
Nordic coolness and real efficiency she helped restore the organisation.”“ICSW was created in 1928 as a global forum on social issues. ICSW has becomemuch more than a simple forum. At a global level we have the mission topromote social justice, social welfare and social development. Today we face an
unbalanced situation where economic issues have become the dominant globalissue. Only a few global organisations are strongly committed to linking economicand social development. The ILO and ICSW are among the few.”“ICSW must strengthen its leadership in promoting social development andfighting poverty. We must continue to advocate for the principles set by theCopenhagen Declaration and which received the commitment of 117 heads ofgovernment. Our mission gives us the responsibility to strengthen NGOs that are
active in the field of social welfare. We have to set up strong connections
between these organisations. We have to develop networking inside civil society
both at the national level and with intergovernmental institutions. We havealready experienced the success of such lobbying in various regions of the world
and we must go forward with this endeavour.”Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 1

New Vice President - Charles Abbey
Charles Abbey was elected Vice President by the Tours General Assembly ofmembers. Charles is Ghanaian. He has served since 2004 as the Regional
President for Central and West Africa. Charles has represented ICSW at meetingsof the UN, African Union and the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).
Charles in assuming the Vice Presidency said “The voice and action of civil society
is very crucial at this point in time of history. ICSW must be seen to provide
critical global leadership through its three-tier structure. ICSW will continue to let
the world know that economic policies must move in tandem with social policies.”“ICSW must champion the harmonious blending of social welfare, social justice,social protection and social development (which has a component of socialaccountability) whilst recognising the specific contextual needs of all parts of theworld.”
Management Committee
Christian Rollet (France) President.
Marijke J Steenbergen (The Netherlands) Treasurer.
Charles Abbey (Ghana) Vice President
Jong-Sam Park (South Korea) Member
Supervisory and Advisory BoardPresident
Christian Rollet
Treasurer
Marijke J Steenbergen
Regional Presidents

Emmanuel Komlan Dzifanu Agbemavi - Central and West
AfricaJudith Kaulem - East and Southern AfricaCharles Jayasinghe - South Asia
Michael Raper - South East Asia and the PacificHsiu-Hsiung Bai – North East Asia
Eva Holmberg-Herrström - Europe
Danilo Santos de Miranda - Latin America and theCaribbean
Under the new constitution the first Management Committee and Supervisory
and Advisory Board took office at the end of the 33rd Global Conference.
Regional appointments will be announced in regional newsletters.
Closing Ceremony 33rd ICSW Global Conference
Directions for ICSW Denys Correll Executive Director ICSWThis conference while looking forward has recognised our achievements in social
welfare and social development. We have looked forward in the areas of social
work, social protection and social development.
ICSW is a key custodian of the principles and commitments of the Copenhagen
World Summit for Social Development. In 1994, a year before the Copenhagen
Summit, ICSW adopted the Tampere Declaration. Many of the Tampere
Declaration principles are reflected in the Copenhagen Commitments. TheTampere principles include productive employment, social integration, universal
access to primary health care, equality of rights and opportunity for women andthe rights of children and people with disabilities.
ICSW operates at three levels – global, regional and national.
Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 2

The ICSW logo represents the spheres and levels in which we work.

The horizontal lines represent our work with kindred international organisations
including the International Association of Schools of Social Work and theInternational Federation of Social Workers. The combined conference in 2010 inHong Kong demonstrates our work together.
The vertical lines represent our work through the levels of government – global
including the UN; regional including our work with the regional groupings ofgovernment and national.
At the centre we have a circle representing our focus on people or socialdevelopment.
The format of ICSW global conferences has evolved. The plenaries are intended
to bring you new knowledge from world class speakers. The symposiums are theopportunity bring together new ideas or explore theories and practice at bothglobal and regional level. The workshops are the opportunity for interaction withthe speakers and other participants on issues that are more likely to be nationalor local.
We aim to have a theme for each day. This is to give a feeling of coherence andmake it easier for participants to follow an idea through plenaries, symposiums
and workshops. Conference participants range from global to local actors. We
cater for all levels of activity. No one level is more important than another. The
local level is fundamental. People who work at this level are confronted daily withthe consequences of global, regional and national policies. For example The
Salvation Army (which is a staunch supporter of our conferences) conducted aworkshop on trafficking. The Army workers have seen the misery at the streetlevel and as a result have developed training packages on countering trafficking.
I turn now to the work of ICSW between conferences.
At national level we focus our energy on building strong national umbrellaorganisations which form the base of our membership – our national member
organisations (NMO). ICSW does not seek a large mass membership. We
carefully examine the credentials of organisations that apply for NMO status. We
only accept one NMO per country.
ICSW has a programme of training for NMOs. We have conducted training forexecutive directors from 17 Southern and Eastern African countries and soon will
be conducting another course in South East Asia. Training includes: The role ofNMOs; membership of national councils; roles of boards and staff; from values topolicy – determining organisational values and formulating policies on key issues;
influencing national and regional policy agendas.
Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 3

At regional level we recognise that social and economic policies cross nationalboundaries. We work with regional groupings of governments. We are achieving
success. In South East Asia we have produced a country by country analysis oftrafficking. We have released a paper on social protection in the South East Asia.
ICSW sponsors the work of the Black Sea NGO Network which is now engaged
with the governments of the Black Sea region in the area of good governance. Inthe European region we are a key member of the Social Platform. And inSouthern Africa we work closely with the Southern African Development
Community Council of Non Government Organisations. This last example andthat of the Black Sea represents the policy of ICSW to assist existingorganisations of NGOs and not competing. Competition is a waste of energy andresources.
At global level we have many new and old partnerships. We work closely with theUN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. We advocate for policies which
we want to see adopted at the global level. We form coalitions to achieve this. Anexample is the ILO campaign for full employment and decent work which waspart of the Copenhagen Commitments but was dropped when the MDGs werecreated. We assist the journal Global Social Policy and contribute the section
Southern Voices. We are co-owners of the journal International Social Work with
the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International
Federation of Social Workers. My reference to the two journals reflects ICSW’s
commitment to the dissemination of knowledge. This we do through our own
monthly newsletter and an extensive website.
Policy development is a major goal of ICSW. Economics and social are the twosides of the same coin. Economics is a tool not an end.
This conference has looked both forward and back. Looking back was assisted
enormously by the publication of our 80 year history - International Council on
Social Welfare 80 Years of History (1928 – 2008) published by the FrenchCommittee on Social Welfare. ICSW owes much to the French Committee and themain authors, Professor Catherine Rollet, Christiane Nantois-Pigeon and ChristianRollet. They have done a magnificent job in preparing this history.
This has been an exciting conference. The plenaries, symposiums were of a very
high standard and the workshops that I attended were notable for theenthusiasm and involvement of the participants.
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided
the source is acknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll – Executive Director. ICSW C/- MOVISIENetherlands Centre for Social Development
PO Box 19129
3501 DC Utrecht
Netherlands
Website www.icsw.org Email: icsw@icsw.org

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 4