Stakeholders Lament Huge Gap In Social Workers Sector

By Ajoke Babareke, Enugu.

Stakeholders in the social service sector of the Nigerian economy have decried the number of persons actively participating in the sector, saying only 8,429 full time employees presently operate in the sector nationwide.

This was made known at the opening of a two day Media dialogue on Social Welfare Professionalisation Bill held in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria.

UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Maryam Enyiazu who gave an overview of challenges bedeviling the system, noted that to address the huge gaps identified, stakeholders must come out clean to take an assessment to identify human resource gaps .

Enyiazu hinted that in 2014, Nigeria lost 8.9billion dollars which represents 1.58% of the country's GDP ,to violence against children.

She added that Nigeria needs strong, regulated and standardized work force in the field of social welfare to thoroughly tackle social problems and prevent the huge loss to violence against children and the vulnerables.

According to her,"Nigeria is yet to understood the need for social welfare workers in the country, social welfare sector struggles to attract pay and retain qualified workforce"

She identified under funding, lack of regulation and misunderstood as key factors militating against social welfare workforce.

The UNICEF expert stressed that social welfare workforce is critical to achieving the 17target areas of Sustainable Development Goals.

"The services of Social welfare workers improve the lives of children and families by addressing,education,health,justice,migration and protection from violence"

Enyiazu emphasized that a major way to seek legitimacy and raise status of social work as a profession in Nigeria is through the establishment of regulatory mechanism to ensure licensure ,certification and registration.

She called on stakeholders to work together to improve protection,health and well being outcomes for children ,youth,families and communities as outlined in the sustainable development goals.

"UNICEF has supported federal government to develop a national plan of action on Social welfare work force " Enyiazu said.

The Head of Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information, Mr olumide Osanyipeju, at the dialogue said the profession is characterized with low pay and unsatisfactory work conditions.

Also the UNICEF Chief of Enugu Office,  Dr Ibrahim Conteh,  said the Bill for professionalisation if Social Work in Nigeria seeks to establish a regulatory legal framework to improve the standard of practice for anyone wishing to practice social work .

According to him, there could not have been a better time as the country copes with some socio-economic challenges that continue to undermine sustainable development for vulnerable children and their families"

"Issues of high prevalence of violence against children, conflicts,terrorism, high number of out of school children ,unemployment rate amongst other challenges,NP doubt ,highlight the importance of overhauling  the social work profession in Nigeria to enable it play its critical role of supporting the vulnerable population" Conteh added.