Somalia

Names of social work

  • U adeegida bulsho
  • Adeeg bulsho
  • Adeegga Bulshada
  • Shaqaale Bulsho

Social work training institutions

  • Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southern Somalia, Baidoa, Southwest State of Somalia

History of  Social Work Profession in Somalia

(Acknowledgements: Eno, M. A. (2022) The Nascence of Social Work Education in Somalia: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Way Forward)

Indigenous social services

“Similar to other African countries, I intend to place the practice of social work in Somalia well prior to the arrival of European colonialism or spread of Islam into the country. Indeed, the cultural practice, tradition, and customary institutions all provide a long history of social cohesiveness—call it family- or extended family-based work, tribal group work, clan or kin-based work, or just any
other form of communal work done to contribute to the well-being of either an individual or a family or any group in need of the service concerned. I also take the opportunity to illuminate in this thesis of limited scope that while some of these services were paid for and purchased in one way or the other, similar to today’s provision of professional social work service, others were offered selflessly and purely on the basis of philanthropy and self-help.

The devastation which the country experienced did neither significantly compromise nor fade away the Somali’s more sacrosanct humanistic philosophy, the reality of voluntarism, the selflessness and/or moral-based provision of services. Therefore, unlike the pessimistic view of the colonial writers and other Western scholars of the same thought, the Somali people have neither abandoned the provision of social services to the needy nor have they become deprived of their hope and optimism for both the present and the future.”

Start of the bachelor’s degree program

Social work, in its formal setting as a discipline in higher education and as a profession, came to birth in Somalia under the auspices of UNICEF, the Ministry of Women and Human Development of the Federal Government of Somalia and the Swedish government. It was therefore a coordinated collaborative initiative aimed at training and producing the first cluster of academically qualified young Somali men and women. The concept was built on the provision of world class education and professional potential to the trainees in order for them to spearhead a systematic implementation of a real-world social work practice.
At the preliminary piloting stage of the program, the joint effort of the government of Sweden and UNICEF, through the Ministry of Women and Human Development of the Federal Government of Somalia, “sponsored the first batch of Somali students in the Centraland South-central regions to be professionally trained in the social work discipline and as the pioneering social workers” a social work lecturer stated. Inaugurated in 2018, the program is expected to graduate the first batch with a Bachelor of Social Work Degree around mid this year (2022).

The future of the new professionals

“Social work is a new profession whose benefits a majority of the Somali society is not yet much aware of. Therefore, an avenue for a massive “awareness exercise needs to be implemented,” a participant stated, in order to showcase the indispensability of the service of the newly graduated social workers.

The preservation of the professional social worker’s dignity, therefore, needs to be thought of with a high regard. Allowing the social work profession to be approached with the disdain that marred Somalia’s teaching profession (Eno 2018:81) will lead to the drastic failure of the delivery of the anticipated professional service. Furthermore, it will lead to the deterioration of the best practicesas well as undermine dealing effectively with the social ills social work is sanctified to fight. The unfortunate impact of such a disdainful policy and practice will result in a brain-drain whereby the trained professionals will either abandon the profession for better paying jobs available in the local market or, worse still, leave the country and contribute their expertise to another country.

Aside from the trials and tribulations in the delivery of social services and particularly in social work practice, the prospect of social work in Somalia is very bright. From being an unknown or a little known about profession, several states/regions in Somalia currently have the pride of producing and qualifying well trained social workers ready to take over their professional leadership in their
field of specialization.

Need for a Regulatory Body

“In order to establish and maintain credibility of the profession and society’s good faith in it, an all-inclusive, legitimately created organization or association that provides oversight, designs ethical standards, and pursues compliance by its members is required as a necessary step. Through this approach, compliance and quality assurance measures for the social work professional will usher in
adherence to ethics with a sense of accountability. To achieve the goal, related knowledge-base as well as expertise to move forward can be gained from already existing schools and professional bodies in the East Africa Region, institutions that have pioneered best practice in social work and have gained a considerable stretch of success over the years. The establishment of such an oversight body
is also necessitated by the rationale that when all the ideals related to the social work profession are in one way or the other achieved, it remains the sole responsibility of the social workers to be steadfast in asserting their professional etiquette, values, ethics, and best practices. Without an oversight institution, the professional fabric will be like loosely-knit threads unable to hold together.”

About Somalia

Information provided by Yuusuf Ali Haashi

Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has a diverse population consisting of various ethnic groups, with Somali being the predominant ethnic group.

The country has a rich history and was once an important center for trade and commerce in the ancient world. However, Somalia has faced significant political instability and conflict since the overthrow of its military government in 1991. This has resulted in a lack of effective governance, widespread violence, and humanitarian crises.

Somalia is known for its nomadic pastoralist culture, with many Somalis traditionally relying on livestock farming as their primary means of livelihood. The country also has a long coastline, which has historically been important for fishing and trade.

Somalia’s economy has been heavily impacted by the ongoing conflict and instability. The country has limited infrastructure, weak institutions, and a large informal economy. However, there have been efforts to rebuild and stabilize the country, with international assistance and support.

Somalia is also known for its vibrant cultural heritage, including its music, poetry, and traditional dances. Somali cuisine is diverse and often includes dishes such as camel meat, rice, and various spices.

It is important to note that Somalia is not a single country but consists of different regions with varying degrees of autonomy. These regions include Somaliland, Puntland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Southwest State, and Jubaland. Each region has its own government and political dynamics.

Overall, Somalia continues to face numerous challenges but also possesses potential for development and growth.

Roles of a professional body or association of social workers

  • Creating a code of ethics relevant to Africa: To create a code of ethics guided by African values that have been used to provide social services since time immemorial.
  • Societal recognition: make social work known in families and communities including what social work is in local language, the roles of social workers and how the complement not replace or compete with the roles of families and communities. Presently, in most African communities, social work is not understood and at times it is hated because of its focus on western ideas, knowledge, philosophy, theories, methods and literature.
  • Creating a local definition of social work: to help social work being understood and appreciated. Definitions in local languages will be more useful.
  • Creating relevance: making social work in Africa more developmental to enable it to respond to the social issues, challenges and problems on the continent. Social work has to respond to mass poverty in a developmental not remedial way.
  • Professional recognition: To raise social work to the level of other professions, and to give social workers respect and recognition of their service.
  • Professional regulation: Ensure that social workers follow ethical principles that make them accountable for any professional misconduct, breach of ethics or confidentiality.
  • Professional standards: To oversee social worker’s performance, attitude towards families, communities, peers, profession and the society. This builds trust and ensures credibility of social work.
  • Training monitoring: To monitor social work training and fieldwork.
  • Produce literature: To research, write and publish relevant literature for social work training and fieldwork.
  • Advocacy: To advocate for social justice and social services.
  • Continuous training: To lead continuous professional development (CPD) of social workers and all people providing social services. This is important especially for social workers trained in the colonial period, those trained using colonial syllabus or those trained outside Africa.
  • Supporting and empowering indigenous services: To support families and communities in their roles of providing social services and not disempower them.
  • Trade unionism: Act as the trade union of social workers to represent their interests and labour rights as workers, entrepreneurs, volunteers and social innovators.
  • Consumerism: protect families, communities and employers from poor services from social workers, receiving complaints and dealing with them.
  • Collaboration with other associations: Work and collaborate with other professional bodies in the country, in the region, in Africa and globally.
  • Policy work: Creating policies or alternative policies to advance social development and to scrutinize existing policies of the government.
  • Recognising social workers: Celebrate social workers through national social work day, global social work day and providing awards to social workers, students, academics and social work organisations.
  • Networking: providing opportunities for social workers to network, share experiences and listen to others through indaba, conference, webinar, newsletters, journals, websites, social media e.g. groups of Facebook or WhatsApp, dinner etc
  • Decolonising: To decolonise social work to make it relevant to Africa communities, this work involves, among others
    • Using African philosophy, including values, ethics, theories, models etc
    • Using African ethics and removing colonial ethics
    • Using African literature and removing colonial literature
    • Using African academics and replacing non-African academics
    • Using a home grown syllabus, and replace colonial syllabus – in the process avoid brain drain
    • Using and valuing African methods, techniques and strategies of social work  and not non-African methods
    • Valuing African history of social work and Africans who have contributed to that history
    • Contributing African knowledge and methods to global social work and not just receiving global knowledge without scrutiny
    • To educate families, communities, organisations and government about how to remove colonial practices, methods, knowledge etc from the social work services that they provide
    • Generally, make African social work more developmental in approach so that the profession becomes relevant to our families, communities, organisations and government

Please provide additional information about social services and social work in this country

Use the form below to add details about this country. The following details can be added: names of social work training institutions, history of social work, details of founders or prominent people in social work and names of social work association or council.