The Social Welfare Department (Chinese: 社會福利署) is a department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for providing welfare services to the community.
This literature review examines social work's current status and prospects within Indonesia's disaster management system. Indonesia's location within the seismically active "Ring of Fire" makes it highly susceptible to frequent and devastating natural disasters, underscoring the critical role of social work in disaster response, recovery, and mitigation. However, a significant gap exists in the literature regarding social work's involvement in Indonesia's disaster management. This review will analyze available global research on social work in disaster management, extrapolating potential applications to the Indonesian context while acknowledging the inherent limitations of such an approach. The analysis will focus on the current integration of social work into disaster management systems; the effectiveness of existing social work interventions; the challenges and limitations faced by social workers; and recommendations for improving the role and impact of social work in disaster management, with specific consideration for the Indonesian context.
This study examines the living conditions and welfare challenges of elderly tea garden workers in Bangladesh, with a focus on the Malnichhara Tea Estate in Sylhet. Despite dedicating their lives to the tea industry, many remain excluded from state-led social protection programs. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected from 15 elderly workers through in-depth interviews, key informant interviews, observations, and documents review. Findings reveal that most of the workers live in persistent poverty, relying on minimal wages or small retirement rations. None had access to bank accounts, leaving them financially insecure and outside formal financial systems. Long years of strenuous labor and economic hardship have contributed to poor physical health and psychological stress. Although respected within their own community, they remain marginalized from broader society and government welfare schemes. The study highlights the need for targeted policy measures, including special allowances, healthcare support, financial inclusion, and integration into the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS).
This study revisits the foundations of welfare regime divergence by integrating welfare regime typology, subjective class perceptions, and the Varieties of Capitalism framework. It argues that decommodification remains the key dimension distinguishing contemporary welfare states and that citizens’ subjective class perceptions interact with institutional structures to shape support for decommodifying policies. Using data from 22 advanced OECD economies, the analysis proceeds in two stages. First, a macro-level clustering based on principal component analysis identifies two welfare regime groups distinguished primarily by their level of decommodification. Second, an individual-level analysis using World Values Survey data shows that higher subjective class perception is associated with stronger support for income equality, public ownership, and government responsibility, with this relationship significantly stronger in more decommodified economies. These findings suggest that welfare state evolution is shaped not only by institutional configurations but also by how individuals perceive their social position and their trust in the state’s capacity to mitigate market risks. This study contributes to a more integrated understanding of welfare regime divergence by linking macro-structural variation with micro-level attitudinal dynamics.
The aim of the case study is to present the current situation of older people living in rural areas in Poland in the context of contemporary socio-cultural changes that improve their quality of life by promoting leisure time activity. Senior Clubs are the most common form of activation among older people in Poland. The Senior+ Club in Mstów is the first facility of this type in the Jodłownik Commune. The establishment of the Club was a real response to the needs of this group of residents. They expected a place for joint meetings, as well as proposals for various activities that would activate seniors, encourage the establishment of new relationships, and enrich them with knowledge, skills and competences. The Club helps people spend time in an interesting way and also do something positive for other members of the local community. The number of people interested in participating in the Club is systematically increasing and regular members are still eager to engage in the Club’s life. This induces an increase in the self-esteem of individual Club members, tightening friendly relationships and bonds within and between generations. © The Author 2025
This qualitative inquiry examined the implementation of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Program of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) of Silvino Lubos, Northern Samar, Philippines using the National ECCD Accreditation Tool as the primary evaluative framework. Exploring readiness and challenges, and contextual barriers of child development service delivery conducted across 26 barangays of Silvino Lubos, a GIDA area, face perennial inadequacies in resources, politics, infrastructures and varied capacities. The study explored the contextual barriers and alignment with the national standards as well as implementation readiness using key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and document review. Through thematic analysis, four key concerns were raised: (1) structural or infrastructure and resources deficiencies, (2) political barriers to prioritization and motivation of a workforce, (3) differences in training and inadequate qualifications of Child Development Workers (CDWs), and (4) the national ECCD standards and the LGUs and barangays colliding gaps in resources. Findings indicate that Child Development Centers remain unaccredited due to inadequate facilities, irregular honoraria and incomplete documentation. A critical gap was also identified between ECCD curriculum implementation (ages 0–4) under LGUs and the Department of Education’s Kindergarten program (age 5), resulting in discontinuities in school readiness and learning transitions. The study recommends contextualized accreditation for GIDAs, strengthened workforce professionalization of Child Development Workers and supervisors, political-neutral governance mechanisms, infrastructure investment, and improved coordination between ECCD providers and DepEd to ensure continuity of early learning. For the University of Eastern Philippines, the findings provide empirical evidence to inform policy-oriented research, enrich instruction in social development, education, and public administration programs, and strengthen extension initiatives that support LGUs in designing context-sensitive ECCD interventions for marginalized and GIDA communities.
