International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)International Project Grant
Final Report[publication date- 6.12.2023]

Developing an East Africa - UK collaboration project on Indigenous Voices in Social Work Education

Executive Summary
The Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work through the Principal Lecturer, Jill Childs,
submitted a funding proposal to the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) titled‘Developing an East Africa - UK collaboration project on Indigenous Voices in Social Work Education’.
The $5,000 grant was awarded to the project team. The grant enabled the project team to travel toKigali, Rwanda, to take part in a community consultation event focused on decolonisation, valuing
Indigenous knowledge, and international collaboration. This enabled the project team to collaborate
across East Africa and the United Kingdom to co-produce and create an action plan for developing
Indigenous Voices in Social Work Education throughout social work internationally. This links in with theIASSW vision and mission priorities. For example, as an international collaboration we focussed on
representing and promoting social work education across the United Kingdom and East Africa in order tocreate, and maintain, an engaged community of social work educators. We seek to advance this throughmutual exchange of research and curriculum resources by promoting educational strategies and policies
for a more just and equitable world in line with decolonisation.

Co-ordinating and Delivery Group
Project Coordinator –Jill Childs, jchilds@brookes.ac.uk, Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work, Faculty of Health and Life
Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP.
Affiliates –Consolee Uwihangana, uwihanganaconsolee@gmail.com, University of Rwanda, Rwanda.
Susan Wanjiku Muchiri, muchiriwanjee13@gmail.com, Hope Africa University, Burundi.
Janestic Mwende Twikirize, janestic@gmail.com, Makerere University, Uganda.
Doreen Ainembabazi, ainembabazi.dorynn@gmail.com, Makerere University, Uganda.
Bienvenu Magorwa Munyerere, socaction_dev@yahoo.fr, Social Action for Development, Burundi.
Innocent Kayumba, kayumbai934@gmail.com, University of Rwanda, Rwanda.

Elizabeth Clarke, e.clarke@brookes.ac.uk, Oxford Brookes University.
Karin Cooper, Karin.Cooper@hull.ac.uk, University of Hull.
Research Assistant –Omar Mohamed, omohamed@brookes.ac.uk, Oxford Brookes University.

Definitions
Ubuntu refers to a collection of values and practices that black people of Africa or of African origin viewas making people authentic human beings. While the nuances of these values and practices vary acrossdifferent ethnic groups, they all point to one thing – an authentic individual human being is part of alarger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental and spiritual world.
Ikibiri refers to an indigenous Burundi model of bringing people together to bring people together toachieve a given outcome.
The term community refers to the people who attended the community consultation event, however,this also involves drawing on our understanding of working with our own communities and representing
them insofar as we can.
The term Indigenous can be varied, however we will use the understanding the Indigenous refers togroups of people who share a common identity with land, ethnic heritage, and culture, with a history ofoppression and colonisation.

Rationale and purpose of the project
The call to indigenise social work is one that has been advocated for across the globe, and many scholars
explore the significance of social work utilising a globally diverse knowledge base. The current global
knowledge base for social work is currently dominated by a White, Western, Eurocentric, and Global
North perspective on how social work can be practised effectively. Therefore, the need to indigenisesocial work is significant. There is evidence that locally produced knowledge and home-grown solutions
have been able to support collective recovery in the post-genocide context of Rwanda. There are also
examples of Maori social workers in Aotearoa, New Zealand promoting methods of social work that areembedded in the ancestry and knowledge of indigenous populations which have been welcomed by theindigenous Maori communities as well as the wider population in this context. This is positive inevidencing the value in learning from indigenous knowledge and wisdom to be able to contribute toculturally and contextually relevant knowledge.
Current research furthers these points to deconstruct understanding of the colonial legacy, whereindigenous populations are left feeling disconnected and removed from their ancestral beliefs, culture,and ways of being. For example, within their language, landscapes, and social structures. A call for
locally and empirically based knowledge production is needed where more culturally adapted solutions
to contexts are made, to benefit indigenous populations. For example, in Nigeria, using indigenised
practices were effective both for the Indigenous populations living in Nigeria, as well as descendants

living elsewhere. This highlights the importance of the potential internationalisation impacts thatindigenisation of social work can have, when there is an increase in valuing indigenous philosophies andknowledge bases. This will, we would argue, ultimately ensure that social work knowledge across theglobe is culturally and contextually relevant to local populations and communities.
Using the context of decolonisation of the curriculum and ideas stemming from Ubuntu as a backdrop,
this project will use a method of community consultation with partners from Uganda, Burundi andRwanda and UK. The aim will be to collaborate with East African countries of Burundi, Rwanda andUganda to undertake learning on indigenous voice and application to social work practice within thecontext of internationalisation of the social work education curriculum. A future project will makeindigenous voices central to the social work curriculum, so the funds for this project will seed fund theinitial conversations and develop a wider project action plan as an output. The project will be followed
on by a further initiative using UK based Turing funds to enable UK based social work students to engage
in a research project centering on capturing indigenous voices, methods and approaches to inform theinternationalisation of the Social Work curriculum. It will build on the Oxford Brookes University award
winning work to decolonise the curriculum showcased here
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/hls/projects/anti-racist-university-experience/
The activities planned involve a visit to Rwanda by East African and UK colleagues to take part in an
event using community consultation and a co-learning approach. It will aim to develop a student
engagement research project focussing on indigenous voices and build on the ideas of Ubuntu and otherindigenous models from Burundi and Rwanda (for example Ikibiri in Burundi and Ubudehe in Rwanda).
The community consultation will explore how these indigenous concepts might be further integrated
into the UK based Social Work Curriculum. The consultation will develop a project action plan as anoutput, to take this work to the next level. The second stage of the project will be a plan to draw on
Turing funding to develop a full visiting research and placement project between the UK and East Africa
https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/. (Brookes Social Work students are identified as a ‘special project’in the next round of Turing fund bids).

Description of the process of implementation
In initial consultations between UK and East Africa partners, we have identified we are keen tocollaborate to support work with locating a place for, and capturing the impact of indigenous voice
within the internationalisation of the social work curriculum. Methods of community consultation andmediation, for example, are approaches that can help to shape the future of social work education. The
focus of the community consultation event was to collaborate to develop an evidence base and embedindigenous approaches more formally into the social work education curriculum. In addition, it allowed
us to start to further evidence the value of indigenous approaches into the future of social work
education and practice.
The project was led by a project coordinator to help bring together the partners through virtual
meetings with the aim of discussing, developing and creating the community consultation event. This
included setting out the focus, ground rules, agenda, location, and practicalities. The research assistant
was then tasked with these actions to ensure that the project was implemented effectively and that thecommunity consultation event could take place. It was important at this early stage to address powerimbalances and colonial imperialism, for example, ensuring that support was offered for mutually
beneficial plans around travels, the process of paying, and enabling participation. The decision for theUK team to lead on this aspect of the project through the research assistant with a focus on humility andopenness to understanding cultural needs enabled the event to truly follow the aims of Ubuntu andIkibiri.
The community consultation event benefited from brief, online meetings before meeting in person, tohelp plan out the agenda for the event. At the event itself, ground rules were agreed in the form valuesaround open discussion and humility. These included a focus on what good collaborative international
working looks like, e.g. developing relationships, openness and transparency, valuation of others, equalpartnerships, co-production, mutual respect, avoiding assumptions, respecting diversity, platforming
one another, kindness, and trust. A further focus on anti-racist and anti-imperialist practice wasdiscussed, e.g. promoting social justice, avoiding professional imperialism, recognising and challenging
racism, using white privilege well, and challenging each other constructively.

A discussion of outcomes and/or feedback to the project
The community consultation event felt transformational for all involved, as the focus on international
collaboration between the Global South and Global North focused on decolonisation and mutual
benefits, with African Indigenous philosophies underpinning and spearheading our work together. Thisultimately led to a community consultation event to build a long-lasting connection between the United
Kingdom and East Africa to work together on the aims of decolonisation and valuing Indigenous
knowledge towards a more decolonised, anti-racist and anti-imperialist understanding of global socialwork.

Short-term impact
In the short-term, social work academics and students in East Africa and the UK gained further
opportunity to build relationships and develop a plan for future years to shape the decolonisation of thecurriculum in social work education. In doing so, we not only use principles of Ubuntu but also draw onideas of belonging and creating a place to inhabit.

Medium/long-term impact
The hope is to utilise the learning from this event to support social workers in training, who will
graduate to play a fundamental role in working with communities to heal the wounds of conflict aspromoting peace/reconciliation is vital in this process. To adopt an evidence-informed approach todrawing on indigenous models will have long-term benefits for the profession and citizens of Burundi,
Rwanda, Uganda and the UK. Building on the work of other international collaborations, we will also
lobby the government to recognise and fund social work as a profession with the sharing of our final
report.

Dissemination of the project outcomes
The dissemination of outcomes will be delivered at one UK based and one East Africa based conferenceby the core project team (team leader and affiliates).

Highlights from the event
The event benefited from reflections and learning from previous work, for example, Karin’s work aroundsexual and gender based violence and abuse using a Forum Theatre approach, and Bienvenu’s workaround the Social Action Service which provides psychosocial support to students, utilising workshop
based learning. The key strengths of these projects were that there were clearly articulated project aimsand objectives, which enabled everyone to progress. Key challenges included funding coming from theUK and control over managing budgets, as well as the difficulties around travelling to the UK andcomplexities around visas. Other barriers included language barriers and finer nuances of context being
lost in translation through interpreters.
Janestic’s PROSOWO projects were also reflected on. This involved work completed in 2018 which was a
joint initiative of 4 East African institutions of higher education and one Austrian partner of which theUniversity of Rwanda and other Makerere and Hope Africa partners were key players in this successfulinitiative. We were able to reflect on capacity building, curriculum reviews, advocacy, dissemination andpublications. Principles were agreed around respect, Ubuntu, cultural humility, communication andlanguage. A key focus on sustainability for international partnerships was made.
Further discussions around examples of home-grown solutions were undertaken, such as in Uganda
around child abuse and child marriage and impact on education, Tanzania’s work around poverty
amongst older people, Rwanda’s work around work with youth and unemployment and single mothers.
Whilst the usefulness of learning from these are clear, it is also clear that there is insufficient adequate
published formal knowledge, literature, and research around this. There is a discord between what’s
happening on the ground in terms of practice and what’s being taught in the classroom. Furtherdiscussions were agreed in terms of supporting the action plan of how to address these.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Rwanda was able to attend and share his insights into howhome grown solutions are needed to address knowledge creation for other University based teaching
topics, and discussions were had around how we embed the use of indigenous knowledge systems insocial work education to foster home grown solutions in social development.

Key learning for the United Kingdom
In England alone, Government statistics reveal a 21 per cent rise in vacancies for children and familysocial workers from 2021 to 2022. Meanwhile Skills for Care states that the vacancy rate in adult social
care was 10.7 per cent in 2021/22 - the highest since records began in 2012/13.
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) responded to those statistics, criticising the UK
Government for a lack of investment in social work. The BASW report states: “Without urgent action weare risking highly motivated and experienced social workers leaving the profession, as well as risking theloss of newly qualified social workers early in their careers as they are not being supported to stay in thesector.”
The need for more social workers in the UK is well documented, but there is a need globally not just for
more social work practitioners but for a change in how social work is taught. Therefore, a focus on
working with communities in East Africa to think about how our own curriculum might become more
inclusive would be beneficial. This is because East African curriculums might draw on more indigenousvoices. Some East African curriculums, like the UK, are largely based on Anglo-American literature,
however, with capturing the Indigenous voices and practices, there can be a lot of learning from thewisdom of African ideas and concepts.
Social Work England’s latest State of the Nation report states that social work students want more
opportunities to engage with diversity and difference, including in relation to religion and faith and theneed to draw on international perspectives.
UK Universities should be aiming to promote international students to study social work. There is clear
evidence of the need for more social workers in the UK and we hope this will help us solve some of theworkforce recruitment and retention challenges. There are also further benefits in working on
developing more international placement opportunities for students at Oxford Brookes.
There are specialist insights in East Africa, for example, working with street children, child soldiers andwomen experiencing sexual violence. By gaining insights into their experiences and perspectives, there
is further evidence to be able to look at how to develop more inclusive curriculums globally and locally,
as well as exploring international study opportunities.

Key learning for East Africa
It became clear that an anti-racist and anti-imperialist approach to international collaboration between
the UK and East Africa was possible throughout this event. This includes the focus on empowering
ground rules embedded in African philosophies at the start of the event which primarily focused on
power imbalances and allowed for vulnerability and humility to be explored mutually between the UKand East African participants. Doing this in partnership and seeking leadership from the East African
partners meant that key insights were given around what this should look like, which spearheaded therest of the event.
This helps social work globally to be reminded of the usefulness and benefits of African philosophies
such as Ubuntu and Ikibiri which can beautifully inform the process of international collaboration. The
valuation and respect of these philosophies, and the action to make use of these enables East African
partners to truly understand that African Indigenous knowledge has multiple benefits and uses, which
inherently combats historical and current impacts of colonialism on African Indigenous knowledge.
A reminder that social work in East Africa benefits from a decolonisation approach, to unpick andchange the impact that colonialism and imperialism have had on African Indigenous knowledge, andtherefore their communities. Indigenous voices need to be heard, captured, and presented into theglobal social work sphere as valuable, rich, and meaningful to impact the global social work community

into understanding how better to work within the cultures, contexts and communities that social
workers find themselves in.

Conclusions and future of work
Overall, this project has helpfully enabled a collaboration between East African and UK partners tobetter work together through a decolonised approach, with aims and outcomes to further decolonisesocial work through developing an Indigenous voice in social work education. International collaboration
through a decolonised approach is possible, and the evidence of the benefits of this will be shown in ouraction plan where we will continue to take this work forward through our long-lasting relationships thatthis project has created.
We call on those interested in international collaboration, decolonisation and valuing Indigenous voices
to utilise the learning from this project to further your work with international partners in a meaningful
approach.

Appendix 1PicturesAppendix 3
Action Plan
Strategic Goal
Documenting indigenous knowledge to beshared across social work as a global
profession

Actions
1. Developing a document titled“Indigenous voices in SW education: goodpractice guidance” that responds to theglobal standards, linked to the Values /Ground Rules
2. Documenting indigenous knowledge
through case studies
3. Develop a theoretical model
4. Developing teachers on indigenous
approaches and decoloniality
5. Literature review on indigenous voices insocial work
6. Creating a case study and literature
repository for indigenous voices to be
used in social work education
7. Evaluating indigenous voices in social
work curricula
8. Contributing to magazine articles
9. Develop research papers

Developing the understanding of international
collaboration for social work as a global
profession

1. Develop a document that is called’Ubuntu ground rules for successfulinternational partnerships’
2. Developing future funding bids
3. Create a PowerPoint presentation to be
used at conferences highlighting detailsof the Indigenous voices in SW education:
good practice guidance”