Summary

This presentation describe the collaborative research and development process used to create social work curricula to meet workforce development needs in Somalia and that is now being expanded upon and implemented in South Sudan. Due to decades of conflict and instability, mechanisms for child protection in Somalia are extremely limited and stretched across a wide geographic area. This is also true of South Sudan where the model will be replicated. One key activity of UNICEF's new strategic plan to address current gaps in government capacity to implement an effective Child Protection system is to establish a network of social work schools. To this end, UNICEF brought together experts in social work curriculum development in Islamic countries, social work faculty and administrators from six Somali universities, government social work staff and ministers, and staff from NGOs and INGOs. These stakeholders worked together to create curricula for social work education in Somalia. Lessons learned are being applied in South Sudan now.

Keywords (separate with commas)

social work education, social development, child protection