The Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Action, Ivete Alane, has advocated for the establishment of a professional order for social workers in Mozambique—an initiative she sees as crucial to protecting the profession’s identity, ensuring service quality, and upholding ethical standards.
Speaking at a national conference on social work, Minister Alane urged the Mozambican Association of Social Workers to draw inspiration from countries such as Portugal, Brazil and Ghana, which have already institutionalised professional orders for social workers.
“The creation of such an Order could mark a new phase of institutional maturity for the profession in Mozambique,” she said.
According to the minister, the role of social workers is more vital today than ever before, as societies grapple with a growing array of complex and intersecting challenges — from poverty, migration and rapid urbanisation to climate change, gender-based violence, and inter-generational inequality.
“These issues demand technical, human, and coordinated responses,” she stressed. “And social workers must be at the heart of those responses.”
Alane expressed full support for the initiative being led by the Mozambican Association of Social Workers, praising its growing visibility and contribution to the recognition and positioning of the profession within national public policy debates.
“We are all here united by a common cause: to ensure that social work occupies its rightful place in shaping the responses Mozambique needs to advance in the fight against poverty, exclusion, inequality and vulnerability.”
Reflecting on Mozambique’s 50 years of independence, she noted that building a truly just and inclusive state depends on the country’s ability to care for its most vulnerable citizens—an area where social workers play an irreplaceable role.
“Social workers are, in many contexts, the gateway to citizenship. They are the first to arrive in communities affected by emergencies, the ones who walk alongside victims of violence, at-risk children, abandoned elderly, and young people without opportunities. They translate policies into presence, attention, and care,” she said.
The minister highlighted the broad scope of social workers’ interventions across institutions and sectors, including schools, hospitals, health centres, shelters, courts, prisons, neighbourhoods, and civil society organisations as bridges between citizens and their rights, by describing them as “builders of social peace”.
The conference theme — “Strengthen the Profession, Build the Future: Promote Social Work Training and Practice” — serves as a rallying call, according to Alane, for collective action in three priority areas:
Institutional recognition of the profession, including appropriate regulation, functional classification, and integration into national social development plans; Comprehensive and ongoing training, linking theory with practice and rooted in human rights and professional ethics; Strengthening of intervention practices, focused on real impact in communities and on transforming people’s living conditions.
Alane acknowledged the progress already made in Mozambique’s social work sector but underscored that significant challenges remain. In many provinces and districts, she noted, the profession still struggles with a lack of recognition and identity. Too often, she said, the role of social worker is either undervalued or assigned to individuals without appropriate training, who are mistakenly labelled as social workers.
