Good practice in the field of social work human mobility for the Global-ANSWER Network

Abstract

The problem of identifying good practices lies, first, in the criteria on which their identification is assessed. It could be said that good practices are generally identified based on their effectiveness. A strategy for detecting good practices can be based entirely on the detection of effectiveness. If a practice has proven to be effective, it becomes the object of study specifically to identify what were the main characteristics that made it so. This approach is an evidence-based, inductive approach which, however, has a limit: a reasonable amount of time must pass before a practice can be said to have been effective. This approach therefore runs the risk of severely limiting the ability to detect on the ground the good quality of current practices, the effect of which has not yet been fully developed. This is why a definition of good practice that has been measured by its effectiveness is not enough. It is necessary to integrate this definition with other elements of assessment. The conceptual guide serves to clarify precisely what we should understand by good practice and serves as a framework for the use of empirical screening tools. Those who have to do the work in the field, study the cases, identify the practices and evaluate their merit or otherwise, will be able to operate using the framework provided by the conceptual definition of good practices that we offer