M. Trillo
The Global-ANSWER Project brings together this week in Granada about forty researchers and professionals from the field of Social Work and Human Mobility who have travelled from Rome, Florence, Palermo, Lund, Madrid, La Rioja and Lugo to participate in the Global-ANSWER project, the international research and collaboration network funded by the European Union with the aim of identifying good practices and improving the inclusion of the population migrant.
The meeting in Granada, which starts this Wednesday at the Carmen de los Mártires, is motivated by the celebration of the III Annual Coordination Meeting of the project "Global-ANSWER: Global social work and human mobility: comparative studies on local government and good practices of social work in the Euro-Mediterranean region (2022-2025)" and which has funding of 1.5 million euros within the EU's Horizon 2020 Programme.
The III Annual Coordination Meeting will take place from January 8 to 10, 2025. It will begin with the official reception offered by the City Council of Granada in the Carmen de los Mártires and will continue with work meetings at the Faculty of Social Work in which the annual balance of the project will be presented by the different collaborating entities, discussion groups will be developed aimed at defining the social innovation model of the Global-ANSWER Network and executive meetings will be held aimed at the communication and dissemination of the project as a central Work Package in the last year of the project's validity.
The main researcher of the project, Professor Belén Morata, recalls that the objective of the network is to "identify good practices" from the local level in order to offer guidance to Europe, beyond the regulatory and legal aspect, in the improvement of social policies for the care and integration of the migrant population, in a comprehensive, effective way and with the greatest respect for human rights.
From this perspective, he understands that "the meeting will underline the role of Granada as a reference center for research and international cooperation in the field of Social Work". In addition, it will constitute "an opportunity to strengthen collaboration between institutions and professionals from different countries", consolidating networks that transcend the academic field and have a direct impact on European social policies.
Regarding the level of compliance with objectives, Morata stresses the importance of the results that have already been achieved with the seven case studies already completed and of two others that are currently being developed and whose results will be announced in the scientific publications that are already being prepared as a balance.
Madrid - Palermo - Granada
Just a year ago, at the halfway point of the project, it was the Sicilian city of Palermo that hosted the second coordination meeting. The meeting, coordinated by UNIPA researcher Roberta T. Di Rosa, was held one year after the balance day held in Madrid in January 2023 and led by the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, another of the central institutions of the Global-ANSWER Network.
Along with the universities that are members of the network (Granada, Comillas, Florence, Palermo, Lund and Linnaeus), specialists in the field of social work from both local public administrations (city councils of Granada and Palermo) and third sector entities (Red Acoge, Oxfam-Italy, FNAS of Rome and Agape@S:t Thomas) participate.