Gina Chowa, UNC scholar, will speak on advancing global social development
The VCU School of Social Work welcomes Gina Chowa, Ph.D., M.S.W., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a presentation Friday, Oct. 10, titled “Advancing Global Social Development: Youth, Gender, and Community-Engaged Research Across Contexts.”
The session will be in-person at the Academic Learning Commons 3100 from noon-1:30 p.m. ET. Please RSVP by Oct. 9 or register to watch on Zoom.
Presentation archive
Dr. Chowa is the Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professor and associate dean for global engagement at UNC’s School of Social Work. She is also the founding director of the Global Social Development Innovations (GSDI) Center, established in 2017 to advance research, policy and practice that promote economic security, youth development and social protection worldwide. Informed by more than two decades of research and practice, Dr. Chowa’s work sits at the intersection of economic security, workforce development, social protection and financial inclusion, with a particular focus on marginalized populations in the Global South.
In her presentation, Dr. Chowa will discuss innovative approaches to youth employability and economic security, with a particular focus on longitudinal studies in South Africa and Ghana. She will examine the opportunities and barriers young people face in preparing for work and achieving economic mobility in resource-limited settings, highlighting lessons that inform both policy and practice.
Learn more about Dr. Chowa’s book, Global Social Work.
Her presentation will also focus on research with adolescent girls and young women, including a USAID-funded study on mental health outcomes in Burundi and systematic reviews of financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries. These studies underscore the critical role of gender-responsive interventions in advancing global development and addressing inequities faced by young women.
In addition, Dr. Chowa will share insights from her community-engaged work in the Galápagos Islands, where she and her collaborators are investigating the social dimensions of conservation and building locally driven solutions to pressing social issues in a fragile ecological context. This work illustrates how global research can be adapted to protect vulnerable populations while supporting sustainable development.
Finally, Dr. Chowa will reflect on the current funding environment for global social work and development research, addressing both the challenges and opportunities of securing resources for international collaboration. She will offer practical strategies for navigating funding restrictions, sustaining global partnerships and ensuring that research remains ethical, inclusive and responsive to the needs of communities worldwide.
Dr. Chowa has served as principal investigator on large-scale, multi-country studies funded by organizations such as USAID, the World Bank, Ford Foundation and MasterCard Foundation. These include the Siyakha Youth Assets study, the YouthSave Ghana Experiment and the USAID-funded Burundi Adolescent Girls and Young Women Mental Health study. She has also piloted innovative interventions such as AssetsAfrica in Uganda and Chuma na Uchizi in Zambia, which demonstrated how improving livelihoods can strengthen the health outcomes of people living with HIV.
Her scholarship has appeared in leading interdisciplinary and social work journals, including Children and Youth Services Review, International Your, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and Journal of Socio-Economics. She is also the editor of Global Social Work: Preparing Globally Competent Social Workers for a Diverse and Interconnected World (Springer, 2024).
Categories Community, Education