Centering public impact scholarship among social work scholars to promote and contribute to the United Nations sustainable development goals

Abstract

The United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development includes 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that focus on ending poverty, protecting our planet, and ensuring prosperity. The SDGs align with social work values related to eradicating racial, social, political, environmental, and economic injustices and realizing human rights. Although social work scholars support, promote, and contribute to the SDGs’ achievement, we have the opportunity to make a more significant impact by centering public impact scholarship to advance the SDGs. Public impact scholarship refers to research activities and engagement that build public knowledge while working with stakeholders to address social justice issues. This commentary expands the current discourse by applying public impact scholarship specifically to the SDGs and responds to the call made by the international social work bodies—the International Association of Social Workers and the International Federation of Social Workers—to address the importance of contributing to sustainable development. Furthermore, the social work global definition, the Global Agenda, and the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training demonstrate that promoting sustainable development falls into the scope of social work practice globally. Therefore, we assert that social work scholars must prioritize public impact scholarship to forward the SDGs.

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