Participation, civil society and social work practice

Abstract

The challenge facing South Africa today is how to get a politically and economically disenfranchised population involved in civic activities that are truly empowering. Many local, provincial and national government departments are creating structures to give civil society a meaningful role in government processes. It has been legislated in certain instances, for example in public works programmes, that there must be quotas to ensure adequate representation of women on committees. Much effort has been taken to ensure that non-governmental organisations have been representatives of civil society in government policy development and in advisory roles in structures of government. Developmental interventions require a new way of working in partnerships with communities. This demands that social workers play a variety of roles within the framework of development. This paper will define developmental social welfare and participation. A discussion on the importance of the participation of civil society and its relevance to social work will follow. The paper concludes with implications for social work practice. Sustaining development programmes in rural areas remains a challenge; factors inhibiting the serving the poorest of poor include the under-development of the voluntary sector in rural areas and in former homelands (Patel, 1998:121). A lack of participation and human resources capacity, amongst other things, has been cited as a problem. It is intended that this article will contribute to this crucial challenge facing social workers and stimulate ideas for future research.