Book by Ann McLaughlin details how it is possible to make a real change in the world.

Ann McLaughlin, author of World Change-Maker, was trained as a social worker in North America.

She spent 20 years as a psychotherapist and social worker before transitioning to international development, which she believed a necessary area to work in.

World Change-Maker focuses on the practical aspects of working in International Development. The book aims not only to reach out to social workers and those professionally working in development, but also to those who wish to make a change in this world.

The book has three major parts – perspective, skills, and attitude.

“The whole book is fashioned around where I saw the gaps to be. It is very skills-focused,” McLaughlin said. “I often find most people coming from North America are coming from a richer country so, the first part of the book, I’m trying to explain how other issues arise out of poverty. So that whole first part of my book is the things I’ve learned in many, many parts of the world. How far it is to walk for water. How in the villages in Cameroon, a farmer’s wife had malaria but they did not have $5 to get on a motorcycle taxi to get to the clinic. All these pieces I try and convey in the first part of the book, I convey the skills needed such as needs assessment, capacity building.”

She says that change is not only about building or implementing programs, but about building the people you are working for as equal partners.

The book includes a chapter on participatory development, with content reinforcing this statement from the author.

McLaughlin has worked around the world and calls herself a ‘global thinker.’ Seeing the need for more changemakers and change workers, she founded an organization called NGO Abroad.

NGO Abroad hosts international volunteer programs in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and north Africa. McLaughlin also provides career counselling sessions through the organization to anyone who wants to figure out their next career steps.

McLaughlin believes that social change can happen when the social workers have the skills needed to build those around them. Skills such as needs assessment and capacity building are a big part of the line of work, and World Change-Maker gives insight into these skills and how to build them.

“I do hope it is one they read because there is such a need for it. I consider it to be a foundation [for this work].”

The book was launched in May 2022 and is available for sale in bookstores or directly from the publisher McFarland & Company, Inc.