The Impetus of Social Work as a Catalyst to the Achievement of Millennium Development Goal Number Three in Selected African Countries. A Literature Review

Abstract

The aim of this article is, through a review of literature methodology, to debate, discuss and form discourses on how social work achieves women empowerment paradigms in a few countries of the developing part of the world. Findings indicate that social work enjoys some policy global support from social work global bodies such as International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International Council of Schools of Social Work (ICSW); is an engine of poverty alleviation; emphasizes on self reliance; broker the needy to sources of resources; facilitates the processes of closing the gender parity gap; is a platform of social justice such as fighting female genital mutilation (FGM); and facilitates the institution of women economic groupings, gender analysis and gender mainstreaming. The article recommends that the profession needs to be more conspicuous; international social work bodies to render more policy and growth of social workers in developing part of the world; social workers need to be adequately motivated through decent and modest remuneration; countries need to have a retraining policy so that social workers are enabled to handle emergent social problems; and the need to ensure gender equity in its training.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p604