From Denys Correll - Melbourne, Australia

Bob Deacon has made a contribution to international social policy in a way that few others will ever match.

Bob was blessed with the combination of a razor-sharp brain, intellectual rigour and a beautiful, warm personality.

And on top of that Bob was magnificently generous in sharing his vast knowledge of global social policy.

During my time (2002-2012) as Executive Director of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) Bob provided his global social policy insights to assist ICSW in its mission to advance social welfare, social justice and social development.

Bob's first contact with ICSW was in 2004 when he facilitated a meeting of extraordinary global experts in social policy.

The meeting was jointly hosted by STAKES and ICSW and was supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

This knowledgeable group examined the opportunities to influence social protection, socio-economic security, human security, poverty alleviation and access to social goods and services.

As a result of the input and report by Bob, ICSW adopted social protection as its major policy direction.

The creation of the journal Global Social Policy was a major achievement. On Bob's initiative ICSW obtained funds from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - Sida to support the Global Social Policy Digest section of the journal Global Social Policy.

In 2012 the President of ICSW Christian Rollet organised a meeting of experts to assist in scoping the issues ICSW should consider in developing a new global programme for the period 2012 - 2016.

The experts, led by Bob who also wrote the report, provided ICSW with in-depth understanding of the directions in international social development policy and its implementation.

This is just a small summary of the massive influence Bob Deacon had on one organisation. Bob touched many of us and we all owe him much.

Denys Correll

Executive Director

International Council Social Welfare ICSW 2002-2012

PO Box 7251 Melbourne Victoria 3004 Australia