This book is written by Southern African social welfare, social work, social development, social security and social policy academics, practitioners and advocates who have varying degrees of experience. The authors who contributed chapters to this book added their perspectives to ongoing debates about academic areas in the region. Thus, the book’s primary objective is to discuss the development of social welfare and social work in Southern Africa. In doing so, it endeavours to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on social welfare and social work in the region. The chapters are examined through different theoretical lenses and historical perspectives. In this book, African scholars, academics, and practitioners provide a deep and critical reflection of social welfare, social work, and related disciplines during the colonial and post-colonial era, a period characterised by a deliberate move by Africa’s political administrations to focus on nation-building and to attempt to make Africa a global player. Despite being endowed with rich natural resources like minerals; agriculture; and solid family and extended family life, the continent is weak globally. Furthermore, the book focuses on the pre-colonial period – a golden thread running through the chapters. The book discusses the colonial era when Western countries’ capture and oppression of Africa characterised the continent’s history. This book is an appropriate publication at this point in our history; a resource that can be used to generate appropriate narratives and questions within the social welfare and social development sector, particularly on delivery, education and training.

This book is written by Southern African social welfare, social work, social development, social security and social policy academics, practitioners and advocates who have varying degrees of experience. The authors who contributed chapters to this book added their perspectives to ongoing debates about academic areas in the region. Thus, the book’s primary objective is to discuss the development of social welfare and social work in Southern Africa. In doing so, it endeavours to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on social welfare and social work in the region. The chapters are examined through different theoretical lenses and historical perspectives. In this book, African scholars, academics, and practitioners provide a deep and critical reflection of social welfare, social work, and related disciplines during the colonial and post-colonial era, a period characterised by a deliberate move by Africa’s political administrations to focus on nation-building and to attempt to make Africa a global player. Despite being endowed with rich natural resources like minerals; agriculture; and solid family and extended family life, the continent is weak globally. Furthermore, the book focuses on the pre-colonial period – a golden thread running through the chapters. The book discusses the colonial era when Western countries’ capture and oppression of Africa characterised the continent’s history. This book is an appropriate publication at this point in our history; a resource that can be used to generate appropriate narratives and questions within the social welfare and social development sector, particularly on delivery, education and training.

Social welfare and the social contract -- Paradigms and approaches to social welfare -- Precusors of institutional social welfare -- The politics of race and social welfare in South Africa -- The "poor white problem" : causes, scope and public response -- Institutionalisation of social welfare in South Africa -- The non-state social welfare sector in South Africa -- The political economy of social welfare in post-apartheid South Africa -- The South African social welfare system and the new social contract

Introduction to Social work explains the background to social work; how it started and where we are now in contemporary social work. It enables the student to distinguish between the different concepts in the field for instance between social work and social welfare. The book also focuses on professional values; particularly on how to express these values through communication. Students need to know how to talk to clients; communication is a core skills, for instance How to approach different clients in different situations. The book includes exploration of core issues and challenges. Human rights would be a central focus (a rights-oriented paradigm) as well as issues of diversity and inclusion.

Social workers have been involved in social development for many years, but it is only recently that these ideas have been explicitly applied to social work practice. The result is that a new and distinctive approach to social work practice known as developmental social work has emerged. Developmental social work emphasizes the role of social investment in professional practice. These investments meet the material needs of social work's clients and facilitate their full integration into the social and economic life of the community. Developmental social workers believe that client strengths and capabilities need to be augmented with public resources and services if those served by the profession are to live productive and fulfilling lives. Although developmental social work is inspired by international innovations, particularly in the developing countries, it highly relevant to practice in the United States and other Western nations. In the first book to lay out a clear framework for developmental social work practice, chapters will focus on the traditional fields of social work practice, showing how social investment strategies can be adopted by social workers in their daily practice with populations including families and children, people with mental illness, homeless youth, people with disabilities, the elderly, and those in the correctional system. By facilitating clients' full social and economic participation through a variety of strategies, such as microenterprise or asset-building programs, practitioners can help bring about meaningful changes in clients' lives and throughout their communities. The editors and contributors offer a highly original exposition of developmental social work theory and practice, providing a definitive guide to an emerging and exciting new approach to practice.

In this singular collection, indigenous experts describe the social welfare systems of fifteen East Asian and Pacific Island nations and locales. Vastly understudied, these lands offer key insight into the successes and failures of Western and native approaches to social work, suggesting new directions for practice and research in both local and global contexts. Combining international experiences and professional knowledge, contributors illuminate the role of history and culture in shaping the social welfare systems of Cambodia, China, Hong Kong (SAR, China), Indonesia, Malaysia, the Micronesian region (including the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam [Unincorporated Territory, U.S.A.], Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands [Commonwealth, U.S.A.], and Palau), Samoa and American Samoa (Unincorporated Territory, U.S.A.), South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The contributors link the values and issues that concern populaces most to the development of social work practice, policy, and research. Sharlene B. C. L. Furuto then conducts a comparative analysis of the essays including their data and social service programs, highlighting the similarities and differences between the evolution of social welfare in these nations and locales. She contrasts their indigenous approaches, the responses of governments and NGOs to social issues, the availability of social work education, as well as API models, paradigms, and templates, and the overall status of the social work profession. Furuto also adds a chapter comparing the distinct social welfare systems of Samoa and American Samoa. The only volume to focus exclusively on social welfare in East Asia and the Pacific, this anthology holds immense value for practitioners and researchers eager for global perspectives.

"A study prepared for the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)"

Issues Around Aligning Theory, Research and Practice in Social Work Education provides a reflection on social work education with a slant towards an Afrocentric approach, aiming to facilitate strong reflective thinking and to address local realities about social work education on the African continent as well as in broader global contexts. This volume focuses on issues around aligning theory, research and practice in social work education. A significant contribution is made here to the scholarly understanding of opportunities to sustain the academic discourse on social work education. Social work as a profession and a social science discipline is dynamic, and it ought to meet the challenges of the realities of the societies in which it serves, given the history of the changing society of South Africa from apartheid to democracy. Over the years, social work education and training has undergone tremendous curricular changes with the enactment of the White Paper for Social Welfare and the national review, respectively, by the South African Council for Social Services Professions (SACSSP) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) for the re-accreditation of all Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programmes in South Africa fulfilling the prescripts of the Higher Education Act (No. 101 of 1997, as amended) and Social Service Professions Act (No. 110 of 1978). It is worth mentioning that the curricular changes will also continue with the current reviewing of Social Service Professions Act (No. 110 of 1978), as amended, which is underway in South Africa. This book is really ground-breaking! The Afrocentric perspective on social work practice contributes to the current discourse on decolonisation of social work teaching and practice. From a methodological perspective, the book is premised on multi-, inter- and trans-disciplining in social sciences. It covers aspects of social work education and practice through research (narrative, qualitative, African methodology, secondary data analysis, etc.), engendering values and ethics, report writing, supervision in fieldwork as well as exchange programmes and international service-learning, addressing a number of concepts such as cultural competency, cultural awareness and sensitivity are addressed.

This book discusses social welfare activities in Zambia in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. It explains how indigenous social welfare initiatives in colonial Zambia, culminated in the Federation of Welfare Societies. The former became the first nationalist party in this era known as the Northern Rhodesia Congress (NRC), with Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika as its leader. The book also elucidates how the first African government, which was headed by Kenneth Kaunda, attained positive human development indictors in Zambia in the 1960s. Nonetheless, this was at the expense of Barotseland as Kaunda's government had deliberately underdeveloped Barotseland after independence, whilst harassing and imprisoning Barotse activists for decades. After 1991, successive governments continued to apply Kaunda's methods. The book contends that Zambia in its present form is an illegal state, because the Barotseland Agreement was abrogated by Kaunda in 1969. This treaty was meant to amalgamate the former British Protectorates of Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia to form Zambia in 1964.