| Course | MSW 520 International Social Work |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | International agency profile |
| Length | About 630 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 520 Week 2
Agency Profile of the UNHCR Country Operation in Bangladesh: Which Entity Acts in the Cox's Bazar Camps, a Statute Mandate in a Country That Never Signed the Refugee Convention, Earmarked Money and Permission the Host Government Can Narrow
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 520: International Social Work
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Agency Profile of the UNHCR Country Operation in Bangladesh: Which Entity Acts in the Cox's Bazar Camps, a Statute Mandate in a Country That Never Signed the Refugee Convention, Earmarked Money and Permission the Host Government Can Narrow
Which Entity, Exactly
The subject is the country operation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh, with its sub-office in Cox's Bazar. It is not the global agency in Geneva, and it is not one of the national or international NGOs that deliver many services in the camps under agreements with it. The operation answers to UNHCR's regional and global management, while its work in the camps depends on the Bangladeshi government.
Mandate, Quoted Then Tested
UNHCR's mandate comes from its Statute, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1950, which gives it the functions of providing international protection to refugees and seeking permanent solutions for them (United Nations General Assembly, 1950). In most countries, that mandate works alongside a host state's duties under the 1951 Convention. Bangladesh is not a party to the Convention, and the government refers to the Rohingya who arrived after 2017 as forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals rather than as refugees (Milton et al., 2017). So the mandate is tested at once: UNHCR can advocate and assist, but there is no national refugee law it can invoke.
The Money and Its Strings
UNHCR depends almost entirely on voluntary contributions from governments and private donors. Much of that money is earmarked for particular countries or activities. In Bangladesh, the response is planned through an annual joint response plan shared with the government, other UN agencies and NGOs, and shortfalls in that plan have repeatedly forced cuts. The operation cannot spend money it was not given for the purpose.
Registered, and Revocable
UNHCR works in Bangladesh with the government's agreement, and the camps are run by the government's refugee relief commissioner through officials appointed to each camp. The government has at times narrowed what agencies can do, for example by restricting mobile internet in the camps for most of a year from 2019 and by moving refugees to the island of Bhasan Char from late 2020, a relocation the UN later agreed to support. That permission can tighten again without any change in UNHCR's mandate.
A Post, Not a Profession
Inside the operation, protection work is done by staff hired into posts, such as protection officer or community-based protection assistant, not by a profession with its own license. Rohingya refugees take part as community volunteers, because Bangladesh does not permit them formal employment. A social worker joining the operation would hold a post defined by UNHCR, not practice social work as a licensed profession.
What It Is Credited With and Does Not Control
UNHCR is credited, with the government, with the joint registration completed in 2019, which gave many Rohingya an identity card for the first time. It does not control freedom of movement, the right to work, the curriculum taught in learning centers or the timing of any return to Myanmar. Assessments in the camps have documented high needs in health, food and education alongside these restrictions (Bhatia et al., 2018). A profile that credited UNHCR with the conditions in the camps, good or bad, would misread the institution.
Limits of This Profile
It relies on published research and public descriptions, not on interviews with staff, and it does not assess the operation's spending.
References
Bhatia, A., Mahmud, A., Fuller, A., Shin, R., Rahman, A., Shatil, T., Sultana, M., Morshed, K. A. M., Leaning, J., & Balsari, S. (2018). The Rohingya in Cox's Bazar: When the stateless seek refuge. Health and Human Rights, 20(2), 105-122.
Milton, A. H., Rahman, M., Hussain, S., Jindal, C., Choudhury, S., Akter, S., Ferdousi, S., Mouly, T. A., Hall, J., & Efird, J. T. (2017). Trapped in statelessness: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), Article 942. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080942
United Nations General Assembly. (1950). Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Resolution 428 (V)). United Nations.
The Chamberlain MSW 520 Week 2 instructions
The agency profile assesses one international organization the way a practitioner who might work there would need to understand it. Name the entity exactly: the global body, a national society or a country office, since each answers to a different board. Quote the mandate and then test it against what the organization may lawfully do where it works. Follow the money, including who gives it and with what conditions. Explain the permission under which the organization operates and how that permission could be narrowed or withdrawn. Describe how practitioners are employed, as posts or as a licensed profession. Close by separating what the organization is credited with from what it does not control. Avoid reproducing the organization's own adjectives.
How the MSW 520 Week 2 example is put together
The first section names the subject as UNHCR's Bangladesh operation with its Cox's Bazar sub-office, distinct from Geneva and from partner NGOs. The mandate section cites the 1950 Statute, from the United Nations General Assembly (1950), then tests it against Bangladesh's position outside the Refugee Convention and the government's term for Rohingya, using Milton et al. (2017). The money section describes voluntary, often earmarked contributions and a joint response plan with recurring shortfalls. The permission section describes camp administration by a government commissioner, internet restrictions from 2019 and Bhasan Char relocations. A section explains that protection work happens in posts and that Rohingya take part only as volunteers. The last section credits joint registration and cites Bhatia et al. (2018) on conditions UNHCR does not control.
Reading the MSW 520 Week 2 grading rubric
Points are lost first through the brochure voice: the organization's self-description repeated with nothing on what it may lawfully do. The next deduction is for a profile with no permission in it, as though a country office operated on good intentions alone. Credit goes to an exact entity, a mandate quoted and then tested, funding traced with its conditions and an account of how practitioners are employed. Faculty value a closing distinction between what the organization is credited with and what it does not control. Sources should include the founding document and independent research, cited in APA. A profile need not be critical, but it must be an assessment rather than praise.
MSW 520 Week 2 help from the desk
The profile that loses most adopts the organization's own voice, with words like impact and reach and no account of authority. Another frequent gap is treating a country office as if it had the global body's powers, or crediting an international agency with conditions the host government sets. Funding sections often list donors without saying what strings come attached. Some profiles describe staff as social workers when the organization hires into posts with no professional license. If you are profiling a different organization, perhaps the International Organization for Migration or a national Red Cross society, the same sequence holds: entity, mandate tested, money, permission, posts and credit. A profile drafted for your organization would rely on its founding document and on research it did not write.
Get a MSW-520 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the organization your section named, along with the rubric and the assignment text, and a profile is written to that one, with the mandate text, the registration and the funding figures cited by name and date. It comes back inside 24 to 48 hours and the first is free.
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MSW 520 Week 2 questions, answered
Can I profile a small organization instead of a large one?
Yes, and a smaller body often produces a sharper paper, because its registration, its two or three funders and its actual staffing are all findable. Large agencies bury the same facts across hundreds of pages. What the paper needs is a documented mandate, a traceable funding picture and enough published material to say what the organization is permitted to do.
What if the organization does not publish its budget?
That absence is itself reportable. State what is available, whether audited accounts, a donor's own disclosure or a national charity register, name the year, and say plainly which figures could not be found. A profile that admits a gap and shows where it looked reads as more careful than one carrying a confident number from an unnamed source.
Does the profile have to criticize the organization?
No. The week rewards accuracy about powers, not a verdict. A paper can conclude that an agency does useful work and still state that it cannot register a birth, cannot overrule a ministry and depends on funding that renews annually. Praise and complaint both cost marks when they arrive before the mandate has been read.
Where can I find a free MSW 520 Week 2 sample paper?
The full MSW 520 Week 2 agency profile of the UNHCR operation in Bangladesh sits below in full; its notes in the margin follow mandate and permission.
Why does the MSW 520 Week 2 sample say the mandate is tested in Bangladesh?
Because Bangladesh has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, so UNHCR's Statute mandate operates without a national refugee law it can invoke, and its work depends on government permission.