The expansion of developmental social work in Southern and East Africa: Opportunities and challenges for social work field programmes

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that examined how fieldwork education in Southern and East Africa was responding to the developmental social work agenda. The study used semistructured qualitative interviews with key informants from 15 social work programs in 11 different Southern and East African countries. It investigated whether the social work fieldwork placements on offer provided practical experience of a developmental approach to social work practice. The study showed the creativity and enthusiasm with which social work educators were embracing the goals of developmental social work education, despite the pitfalls and limitations of doing this within fieldwork resource constraints.

Developmental Social Work and the Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

“…As each of these priorities implicitly emphasises developmental social work, rather than the traditional remedial orientation of social work practice, they provide opportunities for social workers to make the transition to developmental social work and to make meaningful contributions to attaining SDGs by doing so. Despite studies such as those of Ntjana (2014), Mbecke (2016), and Raniga (2017) on the progress of social workers towards developmental social work in South Africa and that of Gray et al (2018) in Southern and East Africa, an obstacle which the social work profession faces at present concerns a lack of visibility with respect to the contributions which they make to social development. In order to receive adequate acknowledgement by relevant policymakers, it is imperative that the profession should demonstrate the crucial role which it has to play in social development.…”

A practical study of the main transformations from social welfare to social development in Lesotho: Success factors, challenges and prospects

“…As Patel and Hochfeld (2012) indicate, developmental social work became a new paradigm in social work internationally that sought to infuse social developmental theory and practice into social work processes:For many countries in Africa, the neoliberal shift to social development began at the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen in May 1995 with a commitment to eradicate poverty, and that led to the development of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (Gray et al, 2018: 975)…”

“…For many countries in Africa, the neoliberal shift to social development began at the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen in May 1995 with a commitment to eradicate poverty, and that led to the development of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (Gray et al, 2018: 975)…”

“…The introduction of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was not only instrumental in overcoming the shortcomings of MDGs, but also indicated a new direction for social development (Mohamed et al, 2019; Rasool, 2017). Therefore, many countries in Africa consequently considered adopting the social development approach (Gray et al, 2018: 12).…”

“…In particular, the social work profession then infused the social development theory and practice into its interventions and that resulted in developmental social work (Patel and Hochfeld, 2012: 261). A social development approach has been widely espoused in most developing countries, especially in Africa, and is in turn influential in social work theory and practice (Gray et al, 2018: 975; Spitzer, 2019: 573). It is viewed as a vital tool that can be used in efforts to fight poverty and its manifestations.…”