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In Africa's Great Lakes region, many rural communities face serious challenges including chronic poverty, lack of infrastructure, high unemployment, inadequate education systems and healthcare services, as well as a fundamental absence of public social protection mechanisms. In some contexts, rural dwellers suffer from the additional burden of armed conflict and political violence. Yet, rural populations show remarkable indications of resilience and exhibit innovative ways of handling their problems by themselves. Some of these approaches can be qualified as social innovations. With its focus on the role of social work in rural social innovation processes, this article aims to contribute to some under-researched aspects at the intersection of social innovation, rural studies, and social work practice. Empirical evidence of rural social innovations is based on a regional study on indigenous and innovative models of problem solving in five African countries. Here, the focus is on two case examples from Uganda and Rwanda. For Uganda, a community-based concept of household clusters to promote rural development called akabondo is presented. The example from Rwanda is called umugoroba w'ababyeyi and refers to a family strengthening and community development program that has been mainstreamed into government policies. This model is located in the challenging context of a post-genocide society. A critical analysis of these models refers to the question whether they fall into the category of a social innovation; to major players in implementing such innovations; to their impact on rural communities and the wider society; as well as to challenges facing such innovations.

Ritualistic child sexual abuse (RCSA) is an under-recognized and poorly addressed form of child maltreatment. Despite a relative decrease of war-related sexual violence in post-conflict Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the existing monitoring reports leave no doubt that RCSA remains a public health problem of high significance. While RCSA requires urgent action, little has been done to address it. This article critically examines RCSA as a predatory form of child maltreatment and the lack of relevant child welfare interventions to address it. Based on a broader empirical study of ‘RCSA in post-conflict Eastern DRC’, the article argues that although RCSA is not socially condoned by the communities, the interventions on the ground are inadequate for addressing this phenomenon. The article also suggests some perspectives for addressing the phenomenon, in addition to some reflections on child welfare policy and programming as well as implications for social work training and practice.

The effects of globalization are far beyond global economic interdependence and include issues such as the spread of democracy. In this chapter, we draw from the popular global concepts of democracy and youth participation to show how globalisation affects youth’ voice in local processes of participation and empowerment. Data for this chapter were collected from a total of 553 youths aged 15 and 30 years using a structured questionnaire and 10 focus group discussions with young people in ten districts. Results show that with increased democratisation, there are emerging norms and practices that characterise youth behaviours. Participation in formal leadership positions is low at only 26%. However, in exercising their agency, young people have adopted an issues-based approach to confront injustice. There is also a form of youth activism which has spread across the world through the power of Internet and social media as an emerging culture among the youth.

Ritualistic child sexual abuse (RCSA) is a critical and under-recognised form of child maltreatment prevailing in developing countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), children from specific communities suffer complex forms of RCSA perpetrated with extreme brutality by various individuals and groups of conspirators. Although the DRC has achieved significant milestones towards combatting war-related sexual abuse of women and children, disturbing forms of RCSA, notably child kidnapping, rape, child defilement for fetish and superstitious beliefs, child sexual exploitation, and cult-based child marriage persist and affect many victims. This study examines the factors associated with the resurgence of RCSA in post-conflict eastern DRC. The article also discusses the implications of such forms of abuse for social work practice and education in a post-war context.

This article explores how social workers in South Africa (where social work is regulated by law), and Uganda (where social work is not professionally regulated), draw on the premises that social work is a human rights profession embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, their respective countries’ constitutions, and developmental social work to claim their role in promoting social and economic equality. The case studies from both South Africa and Uganda show that developmental social work includes social, economic and environmental development activities and that social work can become a significant role player in promoting social and economic equality through its commitment to social justice and human rights.

During the past decades, the African Great Lakes region has experienced several armed conflicts, widespread political crisis, and large-scale loss of human lives. The civilian population bears the brunt of political turmoil and suffers from direct and structural violence and from the violation of their fundamental human rights. Although social work is still weak in these countries, it can play an important role in peace-building and in the overall rebuilding and reconstruction of affected societies in order to achieve a lasting impact in transforming conflict and poverty structures. In this article, a multi-dimensional conceptual framework for social work in such situations is introduced. Social work interventions in highly sensitive post-conflict contexts should ideally be linked to local knowledge systems and African ethics, thus providing guiding principles for ethical social work practice. Empirical examples from Northern Uganda and Burundi underscore the importance of such contextualised approaches.

Armed conflict and war violate children’s rights. In northern Uganda, thousands of children have been forcefully abducted and recruited by an armed opposition group. Despite relative peace and stability since 2006, children suffer from the destruction of the social, economic, and educational infrastructure, and lack of protection of their fundamental rights. This article provides an overview of international legal frameworks pertaining to children in war and discusses the role of social work in the overall rehabilitation process in northern Uganda. Children’s rights are introduced as guiding principles and a key reference point for programming and practice.

Twikirize JM, O'Brien C. Why Ugandan rural households are opting to pay community health insurance rather than use the free healthcare services Uganda reintroduced free healthcare in 2001, but today, nine years later, less than 30 per cent of the population are using these services. This study investigated why rural households were under-utilising the government's free health services and turning to community health insurance instead. A survey carried out on 260 randomly selected households was triangulated with qualitative data gained from 3 focus groups and 12 in-depth interviews. The findings showed that 21 per cent of the households always accessed the government's free health services, while 79 per cent used private health services. The reasons given were poor quality services, including frequent drug stock-outs, unmotivated and insufficiently trained health personnel, and overcrowding. Factors influencing enrolment in community health insurance included easier access to healthcare, financial protection against the cost of care, better quality care and benefits related to mutual assistance. This has both practical and policy implications, which are discussed in this article.

The way individuals perceive their risk to certain threats influences their adoption of preventive behaviour. This study explored sex workers perception of risk of HIV infection within the context of other serious threats. The study was carried out in Kampala Uganda using peer ethnography. Sex workers were well aware of their risk of HIV infection but this risk was eclipsed by other more immediate and frightening threats. Sex workers willingness to gamble with HIV is explained by the fact that their existence is already very dangerous and taking risks is an inherent part of their trade. Decriminalising sex work could make their lives somewhat safer motivating them to better protect themselves but this is unlikely to happen in Uganda. Attempting to enforce some coercive control mechanisms would not work given the pervasive corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary the institutions that would be responsible for implementing such control.