About our work
A focus on the most vulnerable
World Service supports refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) who, for a shorter or longer period, are unable to return to their homes.
We work with returnees, helping them to settle back into their original contexts, and also with host communities and local governments who are receiving displaced people or returnees.
We work with communities at risk, specifically those vulnerable to natural disasters or who lose large numbers of community members due to migration.
We seek to prevent the effects of poverty and injustice by building long-term resilience.
World Service’s work is guided by LWF’s vision of a just, peaceful, and reconciled world, liberated by God’s grace.
Vision
People of the world, living in just societies in peace and dignity, united in diversity, are able to meet their basic needs, achieve their full potential, and claim their universal rights in order to improve their quality of life individually and collectively.
Mission
Inspired by God’s love for humanity, World Service is dedicated to challenging and addressing the causes and effects of human suffering and poverty, linking local responses to national and international advocacy.
We are consolidating the growth in LWF World Service
LWF World Service is committed to handling finances with integrity, accountability and transparency. It holds a Zewo certification, an official Swiss quality certification, since 2019. Donors can trust that their support reaches the communities that are most in need. Discover our 2021 finances.
Leadership staff from Lutheran World Federation World Service country programs met with the Communion Office colleagues in Geneva (Switzerland), in May 2019. Every year, LWF World Service gathers country directors, emergency team leaders, regional coordinators and other staff to discuss critical issues related to programmatic and managerial work. Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF
We commit sufficient resources to these priorities, creating a shared vision among our staff, developing measurable plans, and achieving some quick results in order to build momentum. We also invest in building technical capacity to implement our operations according to our three programmatic areas.
Better education for residents of the Ohn Taw Gyi camp, Myanmar. Photo: LWF Myanmar/Isaac Kyaw Htun Hla
The LWF is committed to embodying and achieving our values as we work with and through communities and like-minded partners.
Mokolo, Cameroon: Today is market day, and refugees and host communities alike gather to sell and buy goods in Minawao. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
The past two decades have seen enormous strides in many fields of human development. The number of people living in poverty has declined greatly on all continents; undernourishment has been halved globally; maternal and child mortality rates have fallen in all regions; and the number of children going to school and accessing quality education has risen steadily. Access to basic services has improved and basic human, economic, social, and cultural rights have been achieved for larger numbers than ever before.
Meeting of the Committee for World Service at the 2019 LWF Council. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
The Committee for World Service acts as the board for the Department for World Service. It consists of LWF Council members, as well as representatives of related agencies.