Africa

Nigeria

• Empowering women by building social work capacity in Nigeria
• Development of centre for health and development

Empowering women by building social work capacity in Nigeria

Project purpose: The purpose of the project is to improve the well-being of Nigerian women - and in turn the well-being of men, boys and girls - by improving the quality of social work education offered at the university and within the profession, and by developing sustainable gender-equitable social welfare and community-based services.

Key results to date: The curriculum for a new master of social work (MSW) program has been developed and 25 students (11 women and 14 men) were admitted in November 2007. The students include junior faculty from the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and the University of Nigeria, government staff and NGO workers. One faculty member began doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia in September 2008. The curriculum for the bachelor of social work program at the UNIBEN has been revised and now includes courses in key social work practice areas. A research capacity workshop was held for 20 junior and intermediate faculty, and two community members. Two applied research projects have started - one on the trafficking of women/girls and the other on HIV/AIDS and gender. A site at the UNIBEN was established for the Social Work Learning Centre that will house a resource room with books and audio-visual equipment, a computer lab, and an office for the Community Social Work Training Centre. One student from the UNIBEN has been admitted into an MSW program at York University.

Development of centre for health and development

Project purpose: The purpose of the project is to increase and improve medical and psychosocial care for HIV/AIDS patients in Nigeria through the creation of the Centre for Health and Development at the University of Port Harcourt.

Key results to date: The Centre for Health and Development has been established at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and its Board of Directors has been selected. A baseline needs evaluation was conducted to assess the provision of HIV testing, treatment and care at five project testing sites. The results will form the basis of the project's training activities. Four staff members from UNIPORT and 52 community-based health workers from two states were trained in dried blood spot HIV testing. Four members of the project team visited university-based anti-retroviral therapy (ART) projects in Malawi and Kenya in order to learn and establish regional collaboration. Five representatives, including the Head of the UNIPORT's HIV/AIDS committee, attended a consultative workshop on scaling-up ART services at African universities. Consequently, an action plan for HIV/AIDS programming was established for UNIPORT. Also, the university hosted a workshop on HIV/AIDS curriculum that brought together 40 representatives from eight universities in four West African countries.