Summary

Nepal is a landlocked country prone to range of disaster due to its varied geographical altitude, diverse climate, and active seismic zone. Globally, Nepal is the most disaster-prone nation and has experienced multiple natural disaster, which have had an enormous adverse effect on the national economy and standard of living. Despite social works about three decades of history and majority of populations being at the risk of multiple natural disasters, up until now, there is no any specific, tangible, and comprehensive social work framework related to disaster context. Thus, this presentation will explore about disaster in Nepal; and subsequently, discuss why there is urgent need to integrate disaster into Nepali social work pedagogy and praxes. Through such efforts, Nepal's social work education will be improved and strengthened, and social workers will be better equipped to contribute in the field of disaster risk, and vulnerability management. This presentation will also discuss why Nepali social workers need to network and partner with diverse stakeholders such as civil society, community development workers, and policy makers to effectively respond to disaster in Nepal. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Disaster, disaster governance, disaster partnership, disaster and social work, Nepali social work, Nepal

Summary

Nepal is in a threat of multiple natural disasters due to its fragile landscape, geoclimatic conditions, and active seismic zone leading to significant economic and human losses and hinder the country's overall development. Despite the fact that social work has a three decades of history and that the majority of Nepali populations are vulnerable to multiple natural disasters, up until now, there has been no systematic efforts to understand disaster related policy from a social work perspective. Given this, this presentation will first discuss about the disaster situations in Nepal. Then, it will critically explore about relevant plans, policies, and programs relating to disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery. And finally, this presentation will entail how Nepali social workers can participate; and simultaneously, can promote and strengthen better policy frameworks to deal with disasters in Nepal. In essence, this presentation will not only provide guidelines to Nepali social workers about how they can engage with disaster and policy but also it will help social workers elsewhere with similar contexts to better think and link disaster, policy, and social work. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Disaster, disaster governance and policies, disaster and social work, Nepali social work, Nepal

Summary

Sex education is lacking in Nigeria’s social work education curriculum and course contents because of aversion to sex discourse in Nigeria and other African countries. This may leave social work students underprepared for sexual and reproductive health practice. Our study investigated social work students’ opinions on learning about sex education and the uncharted territories of contemporary sex-related issues such as abortion, sex work, pornography and sex toys as part of social work training. Data were collected from 28 students using semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed thematically with the aid of NVivo 12. Findings revealed that students were interested in general sex education because of its impact on reproductive health. However, irrespective of growing social work interest in contemporary sex-related issues, the country’s prevalent conservative culture led to many students displaying resistance to learning about abortion rights, the protection of sex workers, and the destigmatization of pornography and sex toys. Given the growing importance of these issues, we recommend the inclusion of sex education in the social work curriculum and course contents and (re)training of social work students on current standards of practice in sexual and reproductive health.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Social Work education, Social Work education, sex education, curriculum

Summary

Social services are strongly linked to the core of democracy, and have a significant impact on the rights and wellbeing of citizens facing structural disadvantage. However, support from social services does not always fully meet complex needs and may even be directly unhelpful.Challenges arise when citizens are not involved in the definition and assessment of the social problems they face and on possible actions to address them. People who are voiceless due to multiple discrimination are often excluded from the public space where democracy takes place and collective action is decided.\ Therefore, we may raise questions on whether democracy really exist in social services, and on how citizens can shape the work of services that should support social rights.\ Based on the ongoing European Project RESPONSIVE (HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-01-02), this paper aims to explore the normative construction of participation and responsiveness to citizens’ voice in policy discourses in the Portuguese context.Preliminary results, collected through a documental-based approach in four social sectors (mental health, disability, child protection, and youth at risk), reveal that opportunities for citizen’s input are generally more focused on indirect representation. Even in this form of participation, there seems to be an incoherence between policy ambitions and practical outcomes. This gap may suggest an institutionalized pattern of tokenistic or just inconsequent participation, whose likely inducing factors will be discussed.\ Based on the results, and on the RESPONSIVE project design, we propose an analytical scheme that contemplates different levels of participation and responsiveness and how they interconnect. This will pave the way to clarify how the research will proceed towards an action-research approach aiming to promote citizen’s knowledge and agency in social services.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Participation, \ Responsiveness, Voice, Social Services, Portugal