UNICEF Liberia, in collaboration with
the Government of Liberia has held a one-day webinar session on South-South Exchange: Social Service Workforce Strengthening meeting with policymakers, academicians, and social workers among others.
The initiative aimed at developing a national harmonized curriculum and legislation on social work. The event was held on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in the Kofi Annan Conference Room at the One UN House in Sinkor, Monrovia.
It was organized in response to the growing need for standardization of social work education, professionalizing and regulating the social work profession in Liberia through a framework for license and accreditation of social workers and as well for Liberia to learn from particularly Ghana and Sierra Leone on how they were able to develop a national standardized curriculum and legislations on social work and also learn from South Africa experience on the development of a license and accreditation framework.
The meeting brought together policymakers, academicians, and social work practitioners including students from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Africa, and Mauritania to share south-south experience on social work in Africa.
In an opening remarks at the event Hon. Jacob Bedell, Co-Chair of the Joint Education Committee of the Legislature, said that looking at the importance of the meeting, Liberia has had some other challenges with health matters and without taking the social work course.
Hon. Bedell said he ran a non-governmental organization and during the Ebola crisis people were recruited from the communities to do contact traces, follow up, and create awareness on the ebola which are work social workers should be doing and they were able to do it without taking the course.
He said they saw the need for social work as something that needs to be elevated to a level where it will become professional and a career for people to do.
Hon. Bedell indicated that A.M.E University is one of the Universities that have been able to do a curriculum around social work they are now offering bachelor’s degrees and they are now working on a curriculum for a master’s program emphasizing that with this they will be able to move into a level where it will become national and decentralize and not just in Monrovia.
“University in Grand Gedeh for example, right now we have so many courses but are they courses that one do to earn a living because the world is changing and we can continue to do accounting, management, and economic, we have to diversify it so am glad that we are talking about this and from the House of Representative I will champion it to my colleagues on gender and health; we are going to be discussing this issue on social work so that when it is on the floor we will have a consensus to ensure that we make it a legislation so that Liberia is on the path with other nations as they are going to be learning from Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Africa,” he added.
He told his fellow participants that the event is not just to sit and take notes but to go back into their communities and schools they we able to categorize these things emphasizing that “there are good laws but are they being implemented so why we are here today everything we will learn is asking that we should just take notes and close the copy books we should be able to go into our communities and tell the important of these things”.
He vowed to convey the message from the meeting to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Deputy Speaker including his colleagues and tell them the importance of the legislation, why they should do it looking at their communities and Liberia they can’t be part of the world and the practice, education, and experience that other countries had Liberia can’t have it as such for them to be on path with other countries they must be able to learn and make sure to put the knowledge into practice through legislation so the Executive can be able to implement.
“The outbreak of Ebola and coronavirus viruses we never had the opportunity to learn how to prevent this thing but through workshops, we were able to participate and curtail the viruses so, am glad when this becomes a curriculum in schools that institutions are teaching them, our knowledge involvement, participation will be informed and better than what it was; am sure with this we can all form a group and make sure that we make it happen so, be assured that we will from the House of Representative and Senate ensure that when this comes before use it will be passed and the Executive will be asked to implement it,” he concluded.
Also speaking, Josephine Greaves, a representative from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection said that together Liberia has achieved some of the recommendations, including developing guidelines and SOP on case management of vulnerable children, a training curriculum led by the National Leadership Group (NLG) social service workforce strengthening capacity development strategic action plan.
Madam Greaves revealed that there are plans to conclude on the national standardized (harmonized) curriculum, national information management system for social workers and paraprofessionals, a framework for license and accreditation of social workers to regulate the practice, and a social work legislation that will reinforce the statutory mandate of a national regulator of training and practice all geared towards strengthening the social service workforce and particularly to professionalize social work.
She told her fellow participants that the meeting was intended for them to learn best practices that would speedily move the process forward as they learned from their counterparts, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and South Africa experiences on how they were able to advance at the level at which they are in strengthening their social service workforce and legislation.
Madam Greaves congratulated all participants especially UNICEF Liberia for the efforts and support to ensure the process reached this level.
“As we work, let us keep one thing in mind and that is to ensure the vulnerable population especially children are supported to move from their vulnerability to fulfilling their full potential,” he said.
Additionally, Madam Greaves said in 2021, the government of Liberia and UNICEF started the discussion to support the strengthening of the social service workforce to accelerate the achievement of results for children as such both the government of Liberia and UNICEF recognized the importance of a systems approach to delivering services to children, families, and communities.
She noted that the first step to strengthening the overall child protection system in Liberia, a national leadership group was established comprising the Ministry of Gender, the National Social Work Board, and key social work institutions to Guide the mapping and assessment of the social service workforce which was critical to the process.
She also mentioned that the mapping and assessment reviewed the status of the social service workforce in three perspective domains, planning the workforce, developing the workforce, and supporting the workforce as such several challenges confronting the workforce included limited skilled workforce, inadequate resources, weak institutional measures, and the lack of adequate policies and legislations that provides the enabling environment for social workers and paraprofessionals to properly carry out their mandate.
For his part, Andy Brooks from UNICEF Liberia giving the overview of the event explained that the meeting has been organized in response to the growing need for standardization of Social Work education as well as professionalizing and regulating the social work profession in Liberia through a framework for license and accreditation of social workers.
Stressing the need for Social work curriculum at bachelor’s degree levels, he noted that Social work education combines specialized coursework with hands-on experience. Those who complete the program will acquire knowledge and skills working with individuals, families, groups, and communities, assisting them to access services, provide support, conduct advocacy, and promote social justice and human rights.
According to him, the meeting is part of a south-south experience sharing, bringing together policymakers, academicians social work practitioners, and students from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Africa, and Mauritania.
He furthered that the meeting aims to ensure a collaborative effort in the development of a cohesive and unified curriculum and legislation on social work and that Liberia will be looking forward to learning from particularly Ghana, and Sierra Leone which have already developed national standardized curriculum and legislations on social work while South Africa shared their experience on license and accreditation framework.
