Rising to the challenge: Global social work educationToday, our world continues to be plagued by human suffering, interpersonal and racial conflicts, environmental degradation, climatic change, community disintegration, global economic problems, and social injustices. In its 80-year history, the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) has contributed, through various initiatives and projects, to alleviating human suffering, advocating for the poor, and upholding social justice, for example, through its response to the effect of the 2004 tsunami on Sri Lanka (Dominelli, 2007). I believe that IASSW, with its well-established international and regional networks of schools of social work and educators, is a catalyst in promoting excellence in social work education and advocating for sustainable social development and innovation, and encouraging international exchange, collegiality, and partnerships.As the newly elected president, I aim to build on the foundation that IASSW has developed in playing its role as a global knowledge hub for social work education and providing resources on social work education, including training packages on international social work, global social work standards, culturally-sensitive curriculum design, and practicum training. In particular, there is scope to further enhance the '2005 Global Social Work Education Standard' and develop criteria and mechanisms for reviewing social work curricula in different countries. During the revision process, we will strive to take into consideration regional and local differences.IASSW is a unique international platform for social work educators exchanging and consolidating different experiences, skills and knowledge. As cross-regional collaboration and exchange is one of our priorities, it is very important for IASSW to ensure that views of members from different regions are adequately represented. Therefore, we will seek to provide travel subsidies for members, particularly from countries with fewer resources, to participate in various IASSW initiatives and in committees' decision-making processes. Even as we are concerned about inequitable national and regional resources in the