Institutionalized Exclusion of Children with Disabilities and the Role of Social Work Perspectives from Zimbabwe and South Africa

Of a total of 166 countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, two African countries—Zimbabwe and South Africa—have undertaken to uphold the legal obligations imposed by this treaty as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989). Despite the existence of these robust and enabling human rights frameworks, children with disabilities (CWDs) in these two countries remain excluded. Using perspectives from Zimbabwe and South Africa, the aim of this secondary literature-based article is to apply social work lenses in exploring the intractable challenge of the institutionalized exclusion of CWDs. The article will also examine how social workers could support the inclusion of CWDs at all levels of education and in all welfare and health services. The article concludes by offering pathways by which state and non-state social workers in the two countries can navigate differing socio-economic challenges to guarantee enhanced social functioning of CWDs.