Social Welfare Policy Global Issues, Changing Services and Actions in Globalize Societies.

Social Welfare Policy

Global Issues, Changing Services and Actions in Globalize Societies


Policy is the explicit or implicit standing plan that an organization or government uses as a guide for action (Robert L. Barker).


Transnational Actors and Global Social Welfare Policy: The Limits of Private Institutions in Global Governance

Michael Webb, University of VictoriaEmily Sinclair, University of Victoria


Economic globalization is often blamed for forcing governments to cut or alter social welfare programs, and thereby also for limiting the autonomy of the political institutions (i.e., nation-states) that are primarily responsible for achieving social welfare goals.


At the same time, an important non-economic dimension of globalization is the proliferation of transnational non-governmental organizations(TNGOs), creating the potential for new institutions to develop to promote values and interests shared by people in different countries.

Social Welfare Policy Some analysts argue that the growth

of progressive TNGOs could offset the erosion of government welfare programs.

In effect, the loss of autonomy by nation-states could be offset by the growing autonomy of non-governmental actors pursuing similar goals.

Social Welfare Policy Our research looks at whether TNGOs are

developing the capacity to shape and even provide social welfare programs at the global level, and

to what degree TNGOs are able to act with autonomy from the same forces that constrain the autonomy of states — global market pressures, neo-liberal ideology, and inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) committed to economic liberalization.

Social Welfare Policy TNGOs can have an impact in three

ways. First, they can influence government and

IGO policies through traditional lobbying. Second, TNGOs can promote transnational

norms, values, and identities that indirectly enhance the potential for income redistribution and measures to protect vulnerable groups from economic instability.


Third, TNGOs could matter by taking direct action themselves to redistribute resources and protect vulnerable groups from economic instability

Social Welfare Policy In order to assess their impacts in these

ways, we study TNGO participation in the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) held in Copenhagen in 1995.

The WSSD was intended to address the problems of :

poverty, unemployment, and social integration.


The TNGO coalition included groups that mobilized around:

development issues, women's issues, environmental issues, and human rights issues.

Global issues in Social Welfare Policy :

global poverty, food and housing insecurity, economic development, environmental safety, social determinants of health, maternal and child health, mental

health,


addiction, disease and illness, gender and income inequality, human rights and social justice, access to health care and social

resources, strengthening care and service

delivery,


trauma, crises, and responses to natural disasters,

war, violence, population movements and trafficking, war and refugees, immigration/migration, human trafficking, orphans and vulnerable children.


understanding social welfare challenges in a globalizing world.

processes of urbanization, economic liberalization, and various dimensions of globalization influenced on local contexts.


Along with some social benefits, these changes have led to a number of social problems and policy challenges.

These occur across a range of social arenas, including;

growing disparities in wealth, income access to opportunity, and

new pressures on service systems and governance regimes.


need to start building a consensus around a strategy of sustainable human development, which would include:

• Satisfaction of basic human needs for food, shelter, health care, education, and natural resources such as clean water;

• Expansion of economic opportunities for all people in ways that are environmentally and socially viable over the long-term;


• Protection of the environment through future-oriented management of resources;

• Promotion of democratic participation, especially by marginalized populations, in the fundamental economic and political decisions that affect their lives; and

• Encouragement of adherence to internationally recognized human rights standards.

Social Welfare Policy 1.Structural adjustment programs

(SAPs) and the root causes of poverty. Most TNGOs viewed poverty as a structural

consequence of the market-oriented economic reforms promoted by northern governments and the IFIs, and believed that economic policies should address social problems directly rather than aiming to promote economic growth on the assumption that growth will solve social problems.

Social Welfare Policy 2.Funding for social development.

TNGOs called for increased foreign aid for social programs (including the perennial call for rich countries to commit 0.7 percent of GNP to foreign aid) and for efforts to reduce inequality by redistributing income and resources from rich to poor countries and from wealthy to poor people within countries.


3.Institutions and agents of social development.

TNGOs wanted international efforts to empower civil society and make social development policies more responsive to the views of the intended beneficiaries


Activists called for the United Nations, through its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to assume more control over international economic organizations


like the World Bank and the IMF, because the UN is more open to input from developing countries, more sympathetic to strong, direct international action on social policy, and more open to input from representatives of civil society.


The Copenhagen Declaration did not support TNGOs' call for an increased role for the UN, but it did include commitments to improve consultations with civil society, and it adopted the language of "people-centred development."


4.Global civil society Global civil society was not able to

step up and fill in the social policy gaps caused by global constraints on social welfare programs in developing countries

Service Strategy

A Social Welfare policy designed to help clients obtain needed goods and services ( such as food, housing, transportation, health care, or counseling) rather than direct monetary aid.

Service Strategy

For example, a service strategy would be to provide public housing for a needy client rather than providing the client with money for housing.

This strategy is sometimes described as providing benefits in –kind rather than in cash.

Income Strategy A Social Welfare Policy of providing

direct monetary aid, based on predetermined objective criteria, to those in need.

This is distinguished from a Service Strategy Policy , in which social workers evaluate each person’s situation and provide counseling and in-kind benefits.

Income Strategy

For example, an income strategy would be to pay each needy family a certain amount for housing so that the family can make their own choices.

In this example, the service strategy would be to provide public housing or advice about living more frugally.

Service Index

A rating system used by social workers to indicate the degree of seriousness of a client’s problem.

One of the several indexes of this type was developed for the Person-in –Environment (PIE) System which delineates six (6) levels on its severity index.

Service Index

These are as follows: 1.Catastropic, 2.Very high severity, 3. High severity, 4. moderate severity, 5.low severity, and 6.No problem.

Accessibility of Service

The relative opportunity for people in need to obtain relevant services.

For Example; 1. a social agency with greater

accessibility is located near its natural clientele;

2.is open at convenient hours; 3.maintains shorter waiting lists;

Accessibility of Service

4.has affordable fees; 5. appropriate ramps and doors to

permit entrance by people with disabilities are essential to an agency’s accessibility; and

6. has personnel, resources , settings, and policies that make clients feel welcome

Access Provision of Services The actions and procedures of a social

program or service provider organization to ensure that its services are available to its target clientele.

Three (3) of these procedures are : 1.educating the public about the existence

of the service, its functions, and eligibility requirements;

Access Provision of Services

2.establishing clear and convenient referral procedures; and

3.obtaining legal and ombudsperson services to overcome obstacles to getting the services.

Information and Referral Service

A social agency or an office established within an agency that informs people about existing benefits and programs and the procedures for obtaining or using them and that helps people find other appropriate resources and sources of help.

Others services

Child protective Service Benefit reduction rate Children’s defense fund Child support enforcement Chore service Homemaker service Community services

Social Welfare Policy Global Issues, Changing Services and Actions in Globalize Societies.

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