World Social Work Day 2018: "Social Work and Youth: Towards Inclusive Sustainable Development"

Ladies and Gentlemen: occasion

A warm welcome to the Palais des Nations! It is a pleasure to be with you to celebrate this year’s World Social Work Day.

We have come together today to do three things above all else:
̶ First, to raise awareness for the critical work of social workers across the world.
̶ Two, to deepen the connections between us – between practitioners, activists, researchers, and policymakers.
̶ And finally, to build on these connections and learn from each other in our collective efforts to make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a reality.

Let me thank the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and everybody else involved in once again bringing this important event to Geneva.

You have come to the right place. Geneva is the operational heart of the international system, with a sprawling ecosystem of international organizations, NGOs, universities and businesses. It is this permeable environment that makes this city so good at transcending old divides and forging new synergies.

Speaking about old divides and new synergies, I would like to commend you on this year’s theme, namely “Social Work and Youth: Towards Inclusive Sustainable Development”.

It is strikingly obvious: we simply cannot hope to achieve the 2030 Agenda without the active and substantive participation of youth – without 1.8 billion people, without a full quarter of all of humanity. For obvious reasons, no group has a bigger stake in the Agenda – they are the first generation that can do away with extreme poverty, but they are also the last generation that can curb climate change.

Looking at youth today can instill you with much needed optimism.
̶ It is the young who are forcing companies to more firmly embed ethical considerations into their business models.
̶ And it is the young that are increasingly holding political leaders’ feet to the fire – against the short-termism of election cycles and towards a more long-term, sustainable policy cycle.

But we should not look at it through tinted glasses. It is also the young who are most exposed to the growing disenchantment over the failures of our system.

Youth unemployment is more than three times higher than adult unemployment in many parts of the developing world. And in many developed economies, the younger generation no longer expects to be better off than their parents. Having entered the job market in the wake of the Great Recession, Millennials on average earn less, own less, and face higher job insecurity than their baby-boomer parents.

That makes for a dangerous seedbed for discontent. After all, it is not difficult to draw a direct line between social grievance, economic despair, failing institutions, and the eruption of open conflicts.

The 2030 Agenda’s integrated, indivisible and universalist approach is the only credible answer we have to respond to these interlinked challenges.

And while these challenges are global, the solutions are always on the ground, which is to say they are local. This is why social workers are so crucial: you are on the ground where it counts most, working most directly to fulfill that most essential goal of the SDGs: to “leave no one behind.”

The UN is proud to be your partner in this effort. And so am I.

In the spirit of partnerships, let me also invite you, as the chair just announced, to the Mix&Mash party tonight to celebrate World Social Work Day with people of all ages from around the world.

Thank you again for being here – and all the best for your discussions.