Social Work Practice With Local Communities in Developing Countries

The article discusses some features of social work, broad community practice trends, and imperatives for political engagement in local communities in developing countries. Drawing on secondary data and the author’s observations and research on community development in developing countries, it addresses an important question: Do social workers practice in local communities generally, and particularly through political engagement? The analysis shows broad community practice trends in developing countries and argues that social workers and their profession are almost absent in local communities, and when they are so engaged, most of them do not engage politically. In view of local communities’ contexts and people’s deprived conditions, the imperatives for social workers to engage politically in community practice are discussed. These are as follows: adhering to values/principles-based social work practice with communities, making an entry and gaining acceptance, awareness-raising and capacity building, challenging exploitative and oppressive community power structures, and ensuring sustainable community development. In conclusion, it is argued that to effectively address these imperatives, social work may need to alter its non-political and non-religious neutral stand, where appropriate. In many situations, social workers need to focus on the profession’s fundamental values and principles and actively engage with local politics and power structures so as to improve the living conditions of people and local communities in developing countries.