In December 2004, UNRWA’s Relief and Social Services Department launched an education programme for its 300 social workers and their supervisors. The purpose of the programme is to bring its social workers up to date with the most advanced concepts, skills and values in social work best practice.

This is in line with the department’s Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2009) which aims, among other things, to upgrade the skills of UNRWA’s social work staff in order to provide more effective services for the most vulnerable refugees and to help promote self-reliance among refugee families.

UNRWA’s Relief & Social Services Department has collaborated with the School of Social Work at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in the US, to create a two-year education programme based on a generalist approach to social work practice. It will incorporate multiple intervention strategies for working with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.

The education programme consists of eight courses (24 teaching-hours) and will be delivered in four modules (each module of two-week’s duration). The planning and implementation of the programme will meet the education requirements of the Council on Social Work Education (USA) in terms of structure and content. Accordingly, six international professors, who are familiar with these requirements, have been selected to teach the courses using interactive and participatory methods.

Module 1 is currently under way in Amman, Jordan and includes two courses “Human Behaviour and the Social Environment” and “Generalist Practice with Individuals and Families”. The same courses will be taught starting in Damascus, Syria and in Beirut, Lebanon. Social Workers in the West Bank and Gaza are expected to study first module courses in the summer of 2005. Participants who successfully graduate from the programme will receive an education certificate from Southern Illinois University.