Elections 2024: Candidate Janestic Mwende Twikirize English

Janestic Mwende Twikirize

I have 21 years in social work education. I am currently Associate Professor of social work at Makerere University, Uganda.  I have previously served as the Vice President of the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa and Africa representative on the IASSW Board for 5 years (2012-2017), where I am still a member of the capacity building committee. I have been involved in other initiatives to promote excellence in social work education including:  the Africa Region Global Agenda observatory since its inception and currently on the Education Commission (Africa) where we promote adoption of the global standards for social work education and training.  I am a technical advisor for the IASSW East Africa Regional Resource Centre. Between 2012 and 2019, I coordinated a successful project to promote professional social work in East Africa -PROSOWO and currently I am CO-PI of a 6-year international academic partnership project -RESILIENT- to strengthen the relevance of social work education to social development in Africa. In 2018 I spearheaded the development of national minimum standards for social work education in Uganda. I am actively involved in local research and joint publications to strengthen access to relevant teaching and learning materials in social work. 

Vision Statement for Janestic M. Twikirize

I have a strong belief in international and regional collaboration, networking, and collective efforts to promote excellence in social work education and the social work as a respected profession and academic discipline. Therefore, my vision for the International Association of Schools of Social Work is of a collaborative organisation, with a strong and active membership base that cuts across different regions of the world, where institutions work together to promote excellence in social work education everywhere.  

The IASSW has made tremendous progress in the last decade to strengthen membership, intensify capacity building programmes, especially through the establishment of regional resource centres to augment the capacity building events during board meetings, provide access to international partnership projects, and to network with other global organisations including the UN. However, the level of international collaborations, networks and mutual support amongst member institutions needs further strengthening. 

I envision an association where members reach out to others and mutually support each other through academic partnerships, co-production of knowledge, innovation in social work pedagogy, and joint advocacy at the regional and international levels. It is also essential that the historically underrepresented regions are actively drawn into the association to have an authentically global association for our profession. To achieve this requires not just the effort of the board members but the active involvement of the association’s membership. Therefore, it is critical that the IASSW, working with and through the regional associations, intensifies activities and programmes that bring members together for mutual support and mentorship. We also need to increase the visibility of our organisation and its influence at the global level as one way of strengthening social work advocacy and its influence in different regions.