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Conference Overview

The conference to be organized by the Social Work Department of Hubert Kairuki University (HKMU) seeks to bring together men and women of professional integrity to discuss pertinent ethical challenges that Africa is facing in the complex world that we live in today. There is need for all professions with interest in the development of the African continent to face the enemy within before working together on the enemy outside the continent.

Ethical conduct appears to be a problem that most of us have expressed some concerns about in private from time to time. It is high time we brought together the intellectual and professional communities to a platform where each can examine ethics in his or her own perspective so as to facilitate mutual learning. From this discourse the lessons learned from each other’s experience will lead to a way forward on a path towards ethical conduct in Africa.

Social Work is a new profession in Africa. Even in South Africa where it has a longer history both in terms of university education and in terms of practice on the ground, social work is embarking on distancing itself from the practices of the apartheid era. Elsewhere in Africa social workers are combating traditional practices that are discriminatory to women (e.g. FGM), the elderly, and people with disability, e.g. people with albinism.

Hence, the profession is drawing experience from counterparts in America and Europe towards starting a multi-disciplinary discourse and an inter-professional dialogue. It is this approach that gives HKMU and its Department of Social Work the boldness to host a conference involving different sectors and different disciplines (i.e. a conference with a multi-disciplinary focus).

Conference Themes

This Ethics Conference has five themes:

  1. Macro Context on Ethical Policy and Practice
  2. Ethical Social Welfare Services Research Policy, and Practice
  3. Ethical Social Work Research and Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups
  4. Ethical Social Work Research and Practice with Communities and Organizations
  5. Social Work Without borders/International Social Work
  6. Ethical Research, Policy, and Practice

These themes include topics that vary greatly ranging from Ethics in specific areas such as Agricultural Research or Biomedical Sciences to Undertaker Ethics and emerging cyber ethics.

The duration of the proposed conference is three days of plenary sessions, panel presentations, small group workshops, and side events which include exhibitions, and health checks. All these conference events are punctuated by tea breaks, lunch, and evening dinner events. The dates for the conference are October 17 to October 19, 2016.

Potential partners and donors

HKMU and other national and international partners will support this conference on ethics in unprecedented ways because by its nature it is the first of its kind in this region of the world. Although the Social Work Department is new at HKMU and social work is an emerging profession in Tanzania and Africa, it is part of a network of professional associations of social workers in Tanzania, Tanzania Association of Social Workers (TASWO) and the Association of Schools of Social Work in Tanzania.

The two organizations are partnering with the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) which, since its inception in Tanzania, has been partner to USAID and CDC. The University of Illinois Jane Adams College of Social Work (JACSW) and the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center (MATEC) are also partners to social work education in Tanzania and in Ethiopia.

The HKMU Social Work Department is also a member of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (IASSWA), the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), and has had support from similar other associations in the world, including the US National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Other international partners include University of Denver (UD) and University of Cape Town (UCT). With all this good will, the conference on Social Work Conference on Ethical Research, Policy, and Practice in Africa will be supported by many across the globe.

Given that a conference of this nature is long overdue, it is also hoped that more donors and partners will emerge in due course. HKMU will be happy to have everybody on board and welcomes everyone’s support. Presenters, participants, sponsors, volunteers, donors and/or partners, are all needed and HKMU welcomes them all. The more the merrier.