IFSW President Imelda Dodds visited an international social work conference in Mexico in early October 2005, aiming at taking steps to include Mexico in IFSW Membership. Here are her opening remarks at the conference:
Dear Friends and Colleagues
I am deeply honoured to be invited to join you here today for this important conference on social work and working with gender and pain.
I bring the warmest wishes of your colleagues in social work around the globe. The IFSW is the peak body for practitioners. Within the profession our first link is to our member organisations representing a powerful lobby of some 480,000 social workers in 80 countries in five regions. I have been asked to speak briefly about the scope of social work across the world and the theme of this conference. I could spend hours on both. Luckily for you and the organisers I will not.
I will make some short but important points
From its very beginnings social work has operated in context – be that the settlements of Chicago leading to the famous Hull house, English Poor Houses to the Favala’s in Brazil, slums in Kenya and Manila. We work where we are confronted with disadvantage. The similarities in social work practice across the globe are far stronger than the differences. The genesis of our work may differ. The development of social work in Mexico and the Latin America Caribbean is far more closely aligned to political activism than in other countries – but the essential work, the people with whom we work (and I emphasise with whom we work) is the same.
What is also true is that we face the same persistent problems across the globe, the foremost of which is poverty. We know that poverty remains the biggest challenge facing the globe and it is inextricably linked to issues of trade injustices, developing countries indebtedness and insufficient aid from wealthy countries. We also know that women and children are disproportionately affected by poverty.
No country is immune from poverty. Relative and absolute poverty exists everywhere. The degree to which it occurs does differ.
It is estimated that “ one third of deaths, some 18 million a year or 50,000 per day are due to poverty related causes. That is 270 million since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. As social workers we have known for over 100 years that poverty is linked to access to basic services – food, shelter, education and health. Still today we battle to address the inequities and the outcomes of poverty.
The make Poverty History Campaign, which the IFSW supports, is insistent that countries where poverty exists, particularly economically poor countries should choose their own best solutions to end poverty and protect the environment. In short poverty alleviation solutions cannot be externally imposed but must develop within communities – an approach that I know is taken here in Mexico. I understand that through Free Trade Agreements and Structural adjustment policies that the minimum wage in Mexico may have fallen as much as 60%. Today I understand that 8 million people in Mexico live in absolute poverty and a further 60 million experience severe disadvantage due to relative poverty.
Turning to the theme of this conference. Gender and pain. I want to note that women and children are most likely to be affected by violence, be that domestic violence, a scourge in almost very country, or through displacement of wars, conflict and natural disasters. Women are primary carers who are required to and do manage many roles simultaneously. Yet so many years after the battles for equal opportunities inequality in wages and access to education and training opportunities persist. I understand that here in Mexico many women are employed in the informal sector, known for low rates of pay and that it is known that women may end up working a 90 hour week.
The issues are clearly identified not only in Mexico and other countries in the region but also now the World Bank. Speaking on a recent WB study Maria, Valeria Pena, leader of the WB Gender unit for LAC noted.
Inequality translates into losses from the unrealized potential of women’s full integration into the economy, the social and economic costs of violence against women and the loss in human capital from maternal mortality and pregnant girls and boys who drop out of school.
So what is our response? Globally IFSW has chosen poverty alleviation and human rights as key objectives for the coming years. We will progress that work through our linkages with Social Work education, the international Non Government sector, Civil Society and also through our representatives at the UN in New York, Geneva. Vienna and particularly in Nairobi with UN HABITAT the agency responsible for addressing the complex issue of the urban poor and slums. Here in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America I note with great interest the impact of the poverty reduction program which aims at empowering women as they key to reducing extreme poverty. One article which I read suggest that in 2002 21% or 4,240,000 families had befitted from the program – an impressive figure. The empowerment of women seems a key plank in this approach which is strongly aligned to strengthening families and communities. I look forward to learning more about this in the days to come.
Conferences such as these give us the opportunity to take stock of our work, share our approaches, research and teachings. They sustain us in a very challenging place and time. I would dearly like to see presentation on the work here in Mexico at our next world conference is in Munich 2006. If that seems to far away then I seriously suggest that you pan to take your programs to the world congress to be held in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 2008
Finally, I am certain that delegates will make the most of this opportunity and I give my most sincere thanks to the conference organisers for including me in your deliberations.
Imelda Dodds
President IFSW
6.10.05
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