25 September 2013
Welcoming the Minister and participants to the world conference ‘Voices for Development’, Mrs Civil Legodu, President of NASW SA said ‘we are meeting at a very relevant time as the world’s leaders are also meeting today at the United Nations General Assembly – and the issues for discussion in both places have strong linkages to the social and economic challenges experienced all over the world – challenges which adversely affect the poor. We are confident that we have the support of the UN in these discussions.
‘This conference highlights the need for us to bring on board the voices of all, especially the vulnerable groups, to add value to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals process, as well as to support development of the numerous policies that seek to guide this profession towards effective service delivery’, Mrs Legodu continued.
‘Our task is to positioning social work so that we restore the profession to its proper role, responding to the current realities, challenges and needs of local communities.
‘The theme of this conference has an extremely strong linkage to the commitments of The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development and this conference is therefore relevant and key to serve as one of the platforms of engagement for delivery of The Global Agenda.
‘Social work should never diverge from its historical commitment and founding principles of promoting a human rights based approach to service delivery.
‘The impact of this conference will contribute towards ensuring the state of readiness of this collective for better service delivery to the millions of people in the world that this profession endeavours to serve. It is imperative that we have the commitment of stakeholders to support this profession towards accelerating social work service delivery but more importantly to ensure its effective response to the realities confronting our communities,’ Civil Legodu concluded.
Mrs Legodu urged conference participants to get involved and to make a difference in the broader pursuit of human dignity and social justice.
ENDS
Contact
For further comment, background information and interviews, please contact:
NASW(SA) – Ulene Schiller, NASW Secretary, Phone: +27-828-558913
IFSW – Rory Truell, IFSW Secretary General, Phone: +49-17671-697916,
Note for Editors
The “Voices for Development” Conference opens today, Wednesday, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Around 500 social workers are gathering from South Africa, the wider African region and more widely to participate in 3 days of presentations and discussion on 25th – 27th September 2013.
The National Association of Social Workers – South Africa (NASW(SA)) is a voluntary organisation which supports the professional development of Social Workers, Social Auxiliary Workers and Social Work and Social Auxiliary Work Students in South Africa. The Association draws its membership throughout the country from Social Work Practitioners, Educators and Managers within the Social Work sector who are self-employed, or work in Non Profit Organizations or Government Departments. There are currently at least 1,000 signed up members.
The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) is the global federation of national social work organisations, including around 90 national associations consisting of more than 750,000 individual social workers. IFSW is divided into 5 regions with the Africa region consisting of the following countries; Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Lesotho, Morocco, Niger and Zimbabwe, Senegal, Egypt, and Mozambique. IFSW remains true to its focus and belief that development should not only be sustainable but also be able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.