INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS OF SOCIAL WORK
Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development
Board of Directors Meeting in Panama
3 April 2024
Introduction
Since the previous Board Meeting in January 2024, the Global Task Team met twice, on 1
and 21 March respectively. There has been one change to the Global Task Team; Pascal
Rudin stood in as IFSW’s Acting Secretary General while Rory Truell was on a six-monthsabbatical. Rory Truell returned on 1 March 2024, resuming his role withint the team.

Global Agenda Team meetings
At the meeting on 1 March 2024 the Global Task Team mostly focused on the Panama
presentation regarding the Global Agenda. A 15 minute slot is scheduled for the opening
plenary session of the Panama conference to present on the Global Agenda. We initially
understood that the time slot would be 30 minutes, but the programme outline confirms 15
minutes. The presentation will include a broad overview of the Global Agenda, present someachievements/outcomes, give some feedback on the regions, and outline the way forward.
The meeting on 21 March was scheduled for the final planning of the paper. We decided thatthe team will all contribute to developing the paper, but that Abye Tassé will present in theavailable time slot.
Some general observations that the Global Task Force observed during 1 March meeting
were:
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A reminder that, for the second decade 2020-2030, the three international bodies (IASSW,IFSW, ICSW) decided not to identify the themes ahead but gradually due to constantchanges and we want to adapt themes relevant for the time and context.
The Presidents of IASSW; IFSW and ICSW have provided continuity through their support
to the Global Agenda.
The past world conferences were all linked to the Global Agenda themes, however, not all
equally focused on uniting the conference themes and outcomes with the Global Agenda.
Some good conference examples whose programme content focused on the theme were
world conferences in Hong Hong, Sydney, and Croatia.
The return in 2024 of WSWD's theme in alignment with the Global Agenda theme, isimportant for refocusing on the Global Agenda and uniting social work educators,
practitioners, and organisations globally to contribute to social change.
An outstanding matter in the way forward with the Global Agenda is that the Global Task
Group must find a less work intensive way to document progress and outcomes on thethemes of the Global Agenda. Having outcomes documented is important for research;teaching, best practice, policy development and off course archiving for future
generations.

Way forward• The 2024 and 2025 theme, “Buen Vivir: Shared futures for transformative change” will be
the 2026 conference theme in Kenya.
• The Global Task Force will soon start to work on the next theme of the 2020-2030 Global
Agenda era.
• The Global Task Force look forward receiving ideas for the 2028 centenary theme to beemailed to us.

•Explore and articulate ways (methods) to reporting on the Global Agenda (2020-2024) atthe next world conference in Panama. The three sister organizations will be reminded tofind a space in the conference agenda for the presentation of the Global Agenda Reportand launch of the next Global Agenda theme as it has been done in the past.

Respectfully submitted,
Antoinette Lombard
25 March 2024