Resource Spotlight: The Composition of the Social Service Workforce in HIV/AIDS-Affected Contexts


 
Photo courtesy of Capacity<em>Plus</em>/IntraHealth International
Photo courtesy of Trevor Snapp,
CapacityPlus/IntraHealth International

Social service workers are a key component of health teams, and they play an invaluable role in supporting, protecting, and advocating for vulnerable children and families. As social service system strengthening rapidly assumes a prominent position in the development agenda, building the capacity of the social service workforce has become increasingly critical, along with standardization of definitions, functions, and competencies.

In the recent technical report, Composition of the Social Service Workforce in HIV/AIDS-Affected Contexts, the authors describe the composition of the social service workforce drawn from several sources of data. This technical report is intended to help the field move toward a common understanding of functions associated with different cadres within the social service workforce, titles associated with workers who perform these functions, and education or training that is typically associated with these cadres.

Taking into consideration the differences across countries, the authors propose additional emphasis on some broad areas—including examples of promising practices—that will help to clarify the composition of the social service workforce. A more in-depth look at how public-sector social service workers are classified in Kenya is available as an annex.

[adapted from resource]

Please view the resource the Composition of the Social Service Workforce in HIV/AIDS-Affected Contexts

For more information, please see the Social Service Workforce and HIV/AIDS subject areas.

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