This chapter explores the nexus between developmental social work (DSW) and sustainable development in Nigeria with the specific aim of outlining the issues, challenges, and opportunities involved therein as they affect Nigeria's social development and social work. Social work, which promotes the advancement of social wellbeing, social change, empowerment, and liberation of the vulnerable groups, is an integral concept of DSW. DSW maps out a new direction for social work practice, offering processes to address the causes of societal dysfunction and socioeconomic challenges faced by the people. This approach could be used to tackle Nigeria's social issues and poverty. This chapter argues that there is overlap for DSW to promote and contribute to the realisation of sustainable development, the literary and documentary sources, and the review thereof shows that there is a relationship between DSW and sustainable development as both are geared towards promoting the welfare of the people.
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The Nigerian government has made commitments to sustainable development through various government policies, such as the National Vision 20:2020, Transformation Agenda, and the NEEDS I and II (National Planning Commission [NPC], 2009), which focuses on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development. These policies are aimed at poverty alleviation (by improving the national standard of living) and wealth creation (by supporting investors). The policy also aims to protect and conserve natural resources and to ensure people’s life and property are secured (Muleya, 2020). These goals are in line with the goals of the United Nations (UN) 2030 developmental sustainability agenda, which calls upon its member nations to, for example, protect the planet, guarantee the wellbeing of their people, and end world poverty. Thus, sustainable development is seen as a standard for attaining sustainability, poverty alleviation, and social development in all spheres of life.
Professional social workers have the necessary skills and knowledge required for enabling and empowering development practice and processes, resulting in the upholding of human rights, social justice, and protection of people’s welfare. Apart from acquiring skills to support social development, The White Paper on Welfare (1997) asserts that through a developmental approach/social development, social workers are required to contribute towards poverty alleviation, thereby enabling the active involvement of the people in their own development. This encourages a partnership, with social workers working together with the people in welfare and social development processes (Gray, 2002). The key emphasis of the social development approach, as outlined in the White Paper on Welfare (1997), is the need to harmonise social and economic policies with meeting the needs of the people. This in line with the UN World Summit’s Declaration of Social Development (1995), followed by Patel’s research in South Africa (1992) and Midgley’s theory of developmental welfare (Midgley, 1995). The policy takes a social investment approach and asserts that social investment in human capabilities is critical for economic development, as it improves people’s wellbeing (Patel and Hochfeld, 2012). In addition, the policy recognises the significance of economic intervention at both macro- and micro-levels as a means of strengthening people to achieve economic justice and as a means of social development. In this regard, the objective of this chapter is to explore the nexus between developmental social work (DSW) and sustainable development in Nigeria with the specific aim of outlining the issues, challenges, and opportunities involved therein as they affect Nigeria’s social development and social work.