• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.305-337
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• 2012

The OECD High Level Forum-4 that was held in Busan in 2011 was a very important international conference in which more than 2,000 high level representatives from OECD countries, UN, private businesses, charity foundations, NGOs, etc participated, and which dealt with the aid effectiveness issues of ODA (Official Development Assistance), one of the important funds for social welfare of developing countries. However, despite its significance, none of social work organizations, either international or domestic, were in appearance during the conference. What made such a thing happen? This study started from that question and tried to explore the history of international social work: when and how social work gained an international leadership in caring for social welfare of developing countries and how and why it began to lose it. This study also tried to explore, based on the international experience, the tasks that Korean social work community, both academia and field, which just began to be concerned with international social work for developing countries, should address at this beginning stage.