World Social Work Day is a celebration that aims to highlight the achievements of social work, to raise the visibility of social services for the future of societies, and to defend social justice and human rights. Every year, World Social Work Day is celebrated the third Tuesday of March, it is a celebration that has become a highpoint in the social work calendar with social workers all over the world celebrating and promoting the contributions of the profession to individuals, families, communities and wider society.

The first World Social Work Day was celebrated in 2007 under the theme “Social Work -Making a World of Difference”. The initiative of celebrating Word Social Work Day was approved by the member organizations of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) at the General Meeting in Adelaide, 2004. The current date was agreed in the General Meeting in Brazil, 2008 and to be in place to 2020. However, we must look at the beginning of the1980s to find the origins of this world celebration.

In 1983, IFSW United Nations Representatives in New York, led by Jack A. Kamaiko proposed a project to bring social workers of the area into the UN Headquarters in New York. This was the beginning of an annual celebration called Social Work Day at the United Nations.

The original idea behind the Social Work Day was to organize an event that could be a way of interpreting the work of the United Nations to the social work profession and of alerting social workers to the means by which they can collaborate with the NGO´s on humanitarian issues.

Since this first Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations , the IFSW UN representatives continued to organise these days during either April or March.

Some remarks on these Annual Social Work events can be founded on IFSW archives

• 25 March 1986. The Third Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations. was organized under the theme Children and Youth can make the Difference: Revival and Development, in cooperation with NASW´s Peace and Disarmed Committee. Read more on IFSW archives
• 28 April 1987. The Fourth Annual Social Work Day at United Nations in New York used the Theme “international Perspectives on the Changing Family: Implications for Social Policy. Read more on IFSW archives
• 29 March 1989. The Sixth Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations was organized with the theme “The impact of the Environment on the Human Condition: An International Human Rights Problem. Read more on IFSW archives
• 21 March 1990. The Seventh Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations was hold under the theme “Empowerment through Literacy and Education: International Opportunities. The event was organized by IFSW team at the UN/New York and jointly sponsored by IFSW, National Association of Social Work-New York Chapter, Social Workers for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament and other NASW related bodies. Read more on IFSW archives
• 19 March 1991. The Eight Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations was held with the theme “Global Upheavals: Social Consequences for the Family” Read more on IFSW archives
• 24 March 1992. The Ninth Annual Social Work Day at the UN was devoted to the subject of AIDS: An International Crisis. A Social Work Call to Action. Read more on IFSW archives
• 23 March 1993. The 10^th Anniversary of Social Work Day was hold under the theme “A Global Challenge: Ethnic conflict and Humanitarian Issues. Read more on IFSW archives