The International Commission is a division of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), an organization which provides national leadership and a forum for collective action designed to ensure the preparation of competent social work professionals. CSWE's main responsibility is to promote and maintain the quality of social work education. It also works to stimulate knowledge development and practice effectiveness, advance social justice, and strengthen community and individual well-being.

CSWE seeks to achieve the above purpose through its formal organizational structure. CSWE is governed by the direct vote of all full members and an elected national board of directors. The board is comprised of 29 members representing educational programs, faculty, practitioners, minority groups of color, and private citizens. Membership represents the entire field of social work, including graduate and undergraduate educational programs, national, state and local public and voluntary agencies, social work educators, field instructors, and interested individuals. Members volunteer their knowledge, skills and expertise through their service on CSWE commissions, committees, and task forces.

The International Commission is one of the thirteen commissions established by the Council. The International Commission carries out the following functions:

1. To cooperate and collaborate with complementary international organizations, including the International Association of Schools of Social Work;

2. To identify, recommend, and plan international programs and projects;

3. To encourage development and inclusion of an international dimension in social work curricula;

4. To function as an advisory body to the Foreign Equivalency Determination Service; and

5. To assist the Council in its communications and relationships with foreign students and schools.

The Council on Social Work Education operates within the framework of a strategic plan. The current strategic plan includes eight goals that will guide the work of CSWE over a three year period (1998-2000). The eighth goal in this strategic plan deals with international concerns, and the International Commission plays a major role in helping CSWE achieve this goal. This goal, and the objectives which support it, are stated as follows:

Goal 8: Increase international perspectives in U.S. social work education and collaboration with social work education and practice worldwide.
 

8.1 Create a database of the current strategies of international activities among the institutional and individual membership of CSWE.

8.2 Continue and strengthen CSWE's role as a member of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW).

8.3 Create a clearinghouse of opportunities for international exchanges of faculty and students.

8.4 Increase inclusion of international perspectives in social work curricula.

8.5 Reorganize the Foreign Equivalency Determination Service with appropriate levels of personnel resources.

8.6 Establish regular communication with CSWE's counterparts in the region, specifically Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

8.7 Examine the role CSWE should play in reciprocal relationships with social work education programs in other countries and with relevant funding sources.

8.8 Examine with other relevant organizations, the impact of global interdependence on social work practice and, therefore, on the education required to support practice in the 21st century.