Since its inception five years ago, Qatar Foundation for Social Work (QFSW) have been seeking to support the effectiveness and diversity of civil society organisations and become a leading institution in the field of social work that can achieve family and community cohesion, address the challenges and interact with global changes.
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser launched the QFSW in 2013 as a private organisation for public benefit. It aims to develop civil society organisations working under its umbrella, enhance their capacities, promote and activate their roles in society and develop strategies, policies and programmes that contribute to upgrading these organisations so that they would be able to achieve their objectives.
The QFSW oversees a number of organisations including Social Development Centre (Nama), Al Shafallah Center for Persons with Disability, Family Counseling Center, The Orphan Care Center (Dreama), The Centre for Elderly Empowerment & Care (Ehsan), Social Rehabilitation & Protection Center (Aman), and Qatar Best Buddies initiative. The year 2018 was an exceptional for the QFSW when it comes to its objectives of developing and empowering civil society organisations operating under its umbrella. The executive body of the QFSW continued its work to ensure that its specialisations and focuses are consistent with its strategic objectives of activating its role in the Qatari society and ensuring that civil society organisations are contributing to the realisation of Qatar National Vision 2030 through establishing best practices for planning, analysis and evaluation of the work and performance of the QFSW and the affiliated organisations.
Due to its emphasis on the continuous development and keeping up with local and international changes and challenges, Qatar Social Work Foundation worked on keeping pace with the preparation of Qatar’s National Development Strategy 2017-2022 by taking part in the work of its preparation and contributing to the elaboration of its plan. The QFSW and its organisations participated in the eight sectoral working groups and contributed actively to the preparations of the sectoral strategies of the National Development Strategy, especially in the social protection sector, which the Foundation and its centres have enhanced their opportunities to integrate all the QFSW’s projects and centres, whether awareness-raising or service projects or institutional and community capacity-building.
In this context, it was important for the QFSW to update and develop its strategy to meet the requirements and challenges of the next phase as defined by the National Development Strategy 2017-2022. The preparation of the Foundation’s strategy began a few months ago and it will be concluded soon. The task forces initially began with a critical reading of the strategic objectives adopted by the QFSW in 2015 in light of the challenges and new components of the Social Protection Sector Strategy 2017-2022. This was done to develop the objectives and make them more responsive to the challenges and changes that have taken place since then.
It is the responsibility of the QFSW to ensure co-ordination between the various strategic plans of the organisations under its umbrella to ensure the implementation of strategic plans and its commitment to projects and strategic directions. During 2018, plans and programmes were put in place to develop the work of the QFSW. Workshops were also organised to build the capacities of the affiliated organisations at different levels.
The Foundation also monitored the report about the progress in co-operation with the Planning and Statistics Authority, as well as the follow-up status of the QFSW projects and centres for 2019.
The QFSW established the expertise centre to train and improve Qatari personnel and develop administrative and financial performance of the centres, especially as the work of the QFSW with the organisations requires information, regulations and standards that help these organisation in implementing their programmes and projects and achieve their objectives in an effective and innovative manner.
Additionally, it worked on refining its identity to reflect its mission as a platform for empowering social organisation. It also launched national campaign aimed at relevant groups and highlighted the link between Qatar Social Work Foundation and affiliated organisations. The QFSW has worked to refine its identity to reflect its mission as a platform to enable social action organisations to launch a national campaign and educate the target groups on the work of the centres and highlight the link between the Foundation and the centres under its umbrella. The Foundation sought to consolidate relations based on trust and synergy among all centres through the annual forum held annually in March, after linking these centres through tasks commensurate with their capabilities, thus making a great deal of co-operation and responsiveness among all the centres.
It supervised a specialised human rights reporting course held in Doha and Geneva to develop its staff capabilities in this field. It also participated in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting with a delegation in New York in January 2018. The QFSW also attended the meetings of the subcommittee in the Fifth goal of sustainable development goals (Gender equality and women’s empowerment) and presented the first voluntary report of the State of Qatar.
In order to identify the actual needs of the QFSW and the centres, and taking into consideration the priorities in terms of joint co-operation, it has concluded a number of memorandums of understanding and protocols of joint co-operation between the Foundation and the centres operating under its umbrella with the relevant external parties. The QFSW signed a number of memorandums of understanding and joint co-operation protocols with government institutions and private sector.
These initiatives are part of the Foundation’s mission to expand effective partnerships with government agencies and private sector institutions. It is one of the pillars of the Foundation’s success as a development institution aimed at empowering civil society organisations and strengthening efforts to promote family and community cohesion and human development in Qatar. The QFSW also had an active role in addressing the siege. It has worked with affiliated centres to unify all efforts and ward off risks to different groups in the context of the crisis, based on their strategic orientations aimed at sustaining family and community cohesion and sustainable and safe human development.
It also focused on providing all that serves the society and its stability within the framework of clear and deliberate plans and strategies, especially in view of the ongoing siege on the country. It sought to maintain a coherent and cohesive society capable of standing in the face of all circumstances and challenges. All these efforts focused on achieving partnership and combine the role of civil society sector with the government and private sector towards the service of all members of society in the country.
The QFSW will also continue to play its humanitarian role especially after receiving the consultative status of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This will enable it to strengthen its position among international organisations in economic, social and human development issues.
The international status obtained by the Foundation gives it the opportunity to participate efficiently and effectively in the dialogue aimed at improving and empowering groups that needs it. The The QFSW mobilises its efforts and employees to mitigate the repercussions of the crisis through the formation of crisis management team working to co-ordinate efforts and strengthen communication between the centres of the Foundation and other official institutions in the State and abroad.
Since the beginning of the crisis, a team of representatives from the QFSW, Family Counseling Center and Social Rehabilitation & Protection Center (Aman) was formed. The team had specialists in the field of media and awareness. The team provides family and social services to those affected. An example of these services are counselling and legal support and social and psychological rehabilitation.
The QFSW will continue its social role based on its vision and sectoral strategy for the next five years, taking into account all national challenges and entitlements.
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