International seminar on ICT
As part of our contribution to the debate on social welfare, in May we organized an international seminar on ICTs and social welfare with an innovative design involving the regional members of the ICSW. The aim of this international seminar was precisely to discuss problems and challenges such as protection of citizens’ rights, services, digital rights, digital intervention and digital skills in greater depth and examine the role of ICTs in achieving social inclusion and social welfare, as well as country cases of successful ICT applications in the field of social welfare.

The seminar drew experts from various areas of knowledge related to ICTs and welfare and practical cases were presented of digital inclusion in countries around the world, among them India, Korea, Brazil, the USA, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, and Morocco. During this session, panelists addressed key themes of social welfare and digital inclusion: from intergenerational inclusion, surveillance capitalism, public participation and empowerment of marginalized populations in a digital society, to digital mental health and social work intervention, social work research and community social work in a digital era, and online social work education.

International seminar on Food Insecurity in Africa
In September, in accordance with a renewed emphasis on African development and existing challenges the ICSW organized online international conference to explore food insecurity in Africa and outline strategies for ensuring child-sensitive social protection. It is a cooperative project, based on co-design and the participation of all the actors involved. I would like to thank our regional presidents from the African regions, who participated from the very beginning in the meeting we held on March 15 to design the contents of this conference. As with the Newsletter, the involvement of all ICSW members in the design and implementation of the activities that take place each year is very important to ICSW. Knowledge and strategies to deal with social problems must be based on the involvement of those affected, giving a voice to the protagonists of social change from the outset. The conference brought together scholars and practitioners from Argentina, Cameroon, Germany, India, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Spain, UK and USA, as well as international organizations such as UNICEF, IFAD and ILO.

In their presentations the participants aimed at better understanding of the multidimensional nature of the challenge of food insecurity and its complex impact on children. Many innovative solutions were put forward in order to facilitate concerted actions and better targeting of interventions by national governments, international bodies and civil society organizations. The conference provided perspective on areas of particular importance, including the role of key stakeholders and their interactions. The sessions also addressed conceptual and general issues pertinent to food insecurity in Africa, efforts aimed at strengthening cooperation with various stakeholders and strategies to improve capacity development and national case studies and best practices.

International seminar on Social Protection in the Post-COVID19 Era
ICSW hosted its last seminar of 2021 on November 3~5 entitled “New issues in social protection in the post-COVID19 era.” The conjunction of the COVID-19 pandemic and technological advance calls for new measures against abrupt disconnections from the former way of life and accelerates an introduction of an entirely new way of life in every aspect of our society. Accordingly, this seminar aimed to discuss roles and tasks of government, market and civil society regarding new issues in the post-COVID19 era.

On the first day of the seminar, we had three keynote speakers: Neil Gilbert, Jennifer Splansky Juster and Alex Nicholls to share each stories about the roles of government, business and civil society. There was also session and panel discussion on the Universal Basic Income with actual cases from Finland and India to share the experiences, strategies and way forward of UBI in the post-COVID19 era. On the second day, we had speakers from large companies in Korea to listen to their cases of Corporate Social Responsibility activities in pursuing social values in the community. We also invited several experts including Lisa Mcllvenna from ‘Business in the Community’ to deliver the role of business and the way forward of CSR activities in the post-COVID-19 era.

Lastly, invited speakers in the ‘Social Protection and Civil Society’ session delivered their presentation about the current situation of civil society and how the cooperation of public and private, civil society should look like in the future to respond to the COVID-19.