Surviving Covid-19: Social work policy response to children in Africa

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the necessity of urgent policy response to children in Africa. Undeniably, the deadly contagion has wrecked more havoc as impacts on children’s psychosocial well-being and this situation poses legitimate concerns to the social work profession. Although the focus of attention has been elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic has and is continuing to hit hard on the African region. Yet policy attention has been slim and scanty. Using an intervention approach, this paper rollouts a holistic policy response to degrading the after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on children. While highlighting these guidelines, this paper summarised some empowering context necessary for intervention. This is not only amid the global contagion, but also in the aftermath of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. Aside addressing ethical issues and underscoring the imperative of social work intervention, this paper notes that unless we register our voices and make our impact felt in the policy arena, we would continue to make minute impact in curtailing the grievous effect of the pandemic on children. To offset this, it proposes holistic intervention as a veritable channel for meaningful impact. Directions for its application and result orientation are considered. Hence, the outcome of this study could have a significant and extensive impact on the improvement of child social intervention research.

Key terms: Children, COVID-19, social work, social protection, psychosocial, policy advocacy.