Address by the Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, to the International Schools of Social Work Congress, Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, Durban.

The President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work, Abye Tasse
Leadership of all the social work associations present
Social workers of the world
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning to you all.

Let me begin by welcoming you all to this historic 34th Global Social Work Congress. It is an honour for South Africa to be hosting such an important and prestigious event, especially given the fact that the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), has not hosted a congress in Africa for almost 30 years.

The Department of Social Development is also proud to partner with the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) in hosting the congress. It is also my pleasure to serve as the Congress Patron. Most importantly it is wonderful to have so many social workers and social work academics from the entire world in our country.

Our presence here is an acknowledgement that government cannot resolve the social challenges that faces our country and continent alone. As government we also feel strongly that social work education need not be stagnant but must be dynamic and respond to the changing world we live in.

We need the co-operation of institutions of higher learning to re look at the way that training is provided and devise means to accelerate the training of social workers to meet the increasing demand for services.

While at the moment our priority is to train as many social work professionals as possible, particular attention should also be given to the quality of education and the way in which the students are prepared to respond to the realities outside the classroom.

We are meeting at the right time, given the challenges all over the world, which adversely affect the poor. We are living through a global economic crisis. Our people have to contend with escalating inflation, rising food and oil prices and many families are battling to put food on the table. Such difficult economic conditions put pressure on the social fabric of our society.

Many families and households already face hardships related to the impact of HIV and AIDS, the evils of substance and drug abuse and increasing vulnerability of children, older persons, the youth and other marginalised groups.

Other serious challenges in our country in particular are the numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, resulting from various causes including HIV and AIDS. The 2001 national census put the figure of child headed households at more than 248 000. The number has grown, and we are in the process of creating a national database to be able to provide the necessary services.

In addition to the regular social challenges, you also find extreme cases such as the recent horrific attacks on people from other countries in South Africa a few months ago. Many traumatised families are still displaced and need social services including psychosocial support.

Social workers are the first port of call for families in distress, which makes social work training an important area of focus. As you deliberate at this congress, I hope you will be able to address a number of questions.

Central amongst these is whether the social work profession has positioned itself or capable to respond effectively to the challenges of our time. The mandate of social work is to advance principles of social justice by creating opportunities for people to be self reliant, to mitigate against poverty. Social work has a long history of progressive activism directed at the creation of a better life.

From its historical beginnings and intervention models such as casework, group work and community development, the profession has been focused more on the protection of the most vulnerable people and the promotion of human rights issues. However, I believe that the profession also has a central role to play in the attainment of national and international priorities such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We should then seriously look into a developmental role for social work.

We face an acute shortage of social service professionals, and this hinders our ability to meet the increasing demand for developmental social services. For a very long time, social work services in South Africa were overshadowed by the provision of social security grants.

We undertook a massive campaign to extend social security benefits to the poor because a comprehensive social security net is an effective poverty alleviation mechanism. To date more than 12 million South African receive social grants, one of the greatest achievements of the democratic South Africa.

We have since created the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to administer social grants, thus freeing the national and provincial departments of social development to focus more on improving the quality of social work services. Recognising the central role of the profession in the attainment of national priorities such as poverty alleviation and social cohesion, social work has been declared a scarce skill in South Africa.

Over the past years we have lost quite a number of social work professionals due to high demand in countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and the competitive salary packages offered in those countries. Our recruitment and retention strategy, referred to by the Deputy Minister of Social Development last night, seek to redress this situation by improving the working conditions.

As part of the capacity building endeavour in the sector, the Department is recruiting and training other cadres of social service professionals to complement social work professionals. Included in this category are the child and youth care workers and auxiliary social workers.

Ladies and gentlemen, our dedicated and committed social workers put in long hours, working with huge caseloads, sometimes in testing physical conditions, in remote areas, often with minimal resources. We are aware of these difficulties.
We would like to register our deepest appreciation to South African social workers, for their sterling and work and commitment to improving the lives of others, against all odds.

Social work is a thankless profession, one in which the more you work, the more you feel you have done nothing given the volume of work, the pain and suffering of many vulnerable people and families, especially the children. We really salute our social workers for such patriotism and dedication. We must work together to restore the profession to its rightful place, as a career of choice amongst our young people, boys and girls.

Government has passed a number of progressive pieces of legislation that require capable and adequate cadres of social service professionals. Currently, universities produce only 300 social workers per annum. This number is too little compared to the actual number of social workers required in the field, hence the high level of burn out and excessive workload among social workers.

Research has indicated that to effectively implement the Children's Act and provide efficient and caring services to children, we need to have at least 16 000 social workers. I therefore urge this conference to explore workable and realistic solutions that will assist us to fulfil our obligations.

It is in this context that we intend continuing collaboration with global progressive countries and social work associations. Such collaboration will, no doubt, deepen our quest to identify common challenges and strategies in the developing world and enrich the social work education and profession.

We also call for closer partnerships between social work institutions and other agencies such as government, civil society organisations and other professional bodies, with regards to research.

I also trust that congress will look at ways of improving the relevance of social work education. Measures could include the following:
* Development of social curriculums that address pertinent issues in society.
* Provide practical training with strong focus on interaction between students and communities they are expected to serve.

While it goes without saying that social work is a global profession, the real test of the profession's contribution lies in its response to the local needs.

Simply put, social work training and related practice should be consistent with, and responsive to environmental, cultural and ideological variability of a people. The current socioeconomic situation in Africa and all over the world calls for a complete rethinking of social work education.

I am sure that your resolutions will reflect discussions on such matters, for the benefit of the vulnerable and all who want to build a caring society.

I wish you all the best with the congress.

Thank you