The Interlinkages between Sustainable Development Goals and Social Work: A Theoretical Understanding

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are universal calls to action that aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure the prosperity of all human beings. The 17 goals identified in 2015 were a roadmap for achieving transformational change globally. Social work is primarily concerned with helping people in need and solving social problems. Human dignity and worth is the overarching principle of social work, along with doing no harm, recognizing diversity, and upholding human rights and social justice. The beginning of the decade of 2020 had to face an unprecedented COVID-19 crisis responsible for the considerable loss of human lives and unprecedented collapse in the economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all 17 sustainable development goals, showing that what began as a health crisis quickly became a human and socio-economic emergency. The efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic must be in accord with efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and deliver the Goals during the decade of action. Social work professionals are the key and play an instrumental role in achieving these targets. The paper is an attempt to understand the role played by the social work professional in achieving the SDGs and their interlinkages with the principles of SDGs. The paper highlights the new opportunities and challenges social workers can face in accomplishing these goals