Ricardo John Munyegera is a Ugandan Ph.D. student at McGill University’s School of Social Work. He arrived at McGill with an MA in Public Policy and Good Governance (Democratic Governance and Civil Society) from the University of Osnabruck and a BA in Education from Makerere University. With his research experiences through working and living with refugees in Uganda, East Africa, and Germany, he aims to understand the refugee local integration policies and how they explicitly sustain the self-reliance model in Uganda from a Social Work perspective. Ricardo’s research focuses on topics like; “Social Work Practices among the vulnerable Communities; The Refugee-Host Integration Strategy Implications on the Self-Reliance Model; Community Social Work Approaches in sub-Saharan Africa; Social Policies; and Community Development”. His research interests are related to but not limited to refugee and host-community development, social policy implementation, advocacy for social change, social work practice in sub-Saharan Africa, and social justice in general. Social workers have been among the first responders to the increased refugee influx in Uganda through the years. Refugees have caused both opportunities and challenges which social workers and other stakeholders keep addressing. In the same way, the roles of community social workers like developing and conducting support groups, analyzing programs and policies, contributing to research initiatives, planning, developing, and evaluating community programs, etc., are among the diversifying social work roles.
Through these experiences,
Ricardo will address the significant roles of social workers among these vulnerable (stateless, refugees and hosts) communities. Besides that, Ricardo is looking forward to immersing himself in the understanding of refugee self-reliance and integration which is being implemented through the UNHCR’s (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and the progressive refugee policies in Uganda which practices are enshrined in social work. Thus, the refugee-host interventions have diversified from being humanitarian to developmental ones. Ricardo’s participation in this International Conference on Healthcare & Social Work [ICHS] will therefore help to elaborate more on the significance of social work practices among vulnerable communities in Uganda and Africa in general.
However, Ricardo possesses lived experiences not only in Social Work Practice but also with leadership skills, teaching experiences at both university and high school levels, and participation in different charities and retreats geared towards improving the lives of vulnerable people. He’s a Rotarian, and a member of many other research [BIEA, MRRG, CSWDSN & CSWA] and social workers platforms in Uganda, Germany, and Canada.
