Social Worker's Leadership Institute

Transforming Social Welfare Through System Innovation

The Social Workers Leadership Institute (SWLI) is the Asian School of Governance's specialized platform for developing social work leaders across Asia who can navigate complexity, co-create solutions, and transform the systems that protect the region's most vulnerable communities.

Why SWLI Exists

Asia is home to over 4 billion people, with social workers serving millions of families through social protection programs, child welfare systems, disaster response, and community development across diverse contexts—from densely populated megacities to remote rural communities. Yet professional development for this critical workforce remains fragmented and compliance-focused, disconnected from the adaptive leadership skills needed to address today's complex challenges—from implementing universal health coverage and social protection to responding to climate displacement to reimagining elderly care for the world's fastest-aging region.

SWLI bridges this gap. We position social workers not just as service providers, but as governance actors capable of leading multi-sectoral innovation, shaping policy, and building community-rooted solutions to systemic challenges.

Our Approach

Action-Learning Fellowships
Our flagship programs immerse social work leaders in intensive learning experiences where they prototype real innovations in their own contexts. Fellows engage with systems thinking, Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), and Community-Based Global Learning (CBGL) while addressing actual challenges in child protection, social pensions, disaster welfare, migration support, or community development.

Social Labs for Innovation
We deploy sector-specific Social Labs—modular, scalable platforms where government agencies, local governments, NGOs, and communities co-create and test governance innovations. Our labs focus on Child Protection and Family Welfare, Elderly Care and Demographic Transition, Disaster Social Welfare and Climate Resilience, and Migration and Social Cohesion—accelerating solutions to Asia's most pressing social welfare challenges.

Knowledge Production
Through applied research, case studies, and practitioner guides, we generate evidence on what works in social welfare governance across diverse Asian contexts—informing policy while building the profession's intellectual foundation and facilitating cross-country learning.

Who We Serve

• National and Provincial Social Welfare Leaders seeking to strengthen systems and lead organizational transformation

• Municipal and Community Social Workers implementing locally-adapted social protection programs

• Emerging Social Work Innovators ready to prototype new approaches to persistent challenges

• Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations strengthening governance capacity to partner effectively with government

• Regional Networks advancing social protection as a foundation for inclusive development

Our Impact

SWLI graduates don't just gain skills—they catalyze change. Our fellows prototype innovations that are adopted by their institutions, influence policy reform, and improve services for millions across Asia. Through peer learning networks and communities of practice spanning countries and cultures, SWLI alumni sustain collaboration long after programs end, building a movement for transformative social welfare governance rooted in Asian values of community, solidarity, and shared prosperity.

Partnership-Driven

We co-create with national social welfare ministries, local government associations, universities, professional social work associations, and development partners including UNICEF, UNFPA, and the World Bank. Together, we form an ecosystem advancing social protection as a right, not charity—and social work leadership as essential to democratic governance and sustainable development across Asia.

Join us in reimagining social welfare from the ground up.
One mission. Many voices. System-wide change.