Arega Yimam (-c1989)

Yimam’s date of birth is not known but probably died in 1989.

Yimam was a passionate advocate of social develop­ment with a deep concern for the future of Africa. He argued for a holistic concept of development.

Arega Yimam, was closely involved with the Association for Social Work Education in Africa (ASWEA). He was born in Ethiopia. He died before the publication of what was his Ph.D. thesis and responsibil­ity for continuing with publication was undertaken by Phyllida Parsloe, Professor of Social Work at Bristol University, who was his supervisor.

Publication: Yimam, A. (1990). Social Development in Africa, 1950-1985: Methodological Perspectives and Future Prospects. Aldershot: Gower.

In his book, Yiman reviewed the range of external and internal factors contributing to Africa’s underdevelopment before providing a useful, but brief, history of social welfare and social development from the colonial period to the 1980s. He wrote about the emergence of concepts of social development and the problems of reaching an agreed definition which could provide the basis for a unified African policy and practice. Much of the material on conceptualising social development is drawn from documents produced by organisations like ICSW (International Council on Social Welfare), IASSW (International Association of Schools of Social Work) and ASWEA and reflects their historical isolation from mainstream thinking on development.

He examined problems, policies and programmes related to education, health, housing, urbanisation, population, income distribu­tion and social security and finally looks at training in social development. The chapter on training, benefitting from the author’s long involvement with ASWEA, provides new material on the development of training institutions, curriculum content and efforts by ASWEA to achieve general agreement on training.

Yimam stresses on the role of ASWEA and other pan­-African agencies in guiding curriculum development.

Yimam emphasises the need for self­ reliance, labour intensivity, redistributive policies, popular participation, cooperatives, a focus on rural development and greater public expenditure on social development. He looked to China as a model. He was critical of aid and structural adjustment.

He described social welfare and health provision as ‘heavily depended on voluntary input’ (p. 111). The relationship between NGOs and government including the dilemma between co-ordination and autonomy. He worried about under funding of of services in Africa, except for education. He emphasized more science and technology in education. He criticised African governmental health services for urban bias and wastage and insufficient resources.