Book review: Digital Social Work Across Africa and Asia

Daniel Chigunwe
The book raises vital questions but leaves key gaps.
Digital technology is changing social work. Welfare applications, counselling, data collection and public assistance are moving online.
This can make services faster. It can also leave people behind.
Digital Social Work Across Africa and Asia examines this tension. The book is written by Siddhartha Tiwari, Adi Fahrudin and Fentiny Nugroho, and published by University of Indonesia Press.
Its central argument is clear. African and Asian countries should not simply import digital systems designed elsewhere. Technology should reflect local languages, cultures, institutions and social realities.
This is the book’s strongest point.
The book debates that digital welfare is still largely shaped by Europe and North America. The authors challenge that imbalance. They place African and Asian experience at the centre of the discussion.
The book covers digital inequality, privacy, artificial intelligence, algorithmic bias, mobile services and online counselling.
It is most convincing when it shows that access is not only about internet coverage.
Cost matters. So do language, disability, education, gender and public trust. These factors often decide who benefits from technology and who is excluded.
The discussion of data sovereignty is also timely.
Many developing countries depend on foreign platforms, cloud services and software providers. This raises difficult questions. Who controls sensitive social data? Where is it stored? Who is responsible when it is misused?
For Zimbabwe, this debate is highly relevant. The country has universities, professional institutions and skilled social workers. These skilled practitioners can help shape digital social work around local needs rather than simply copy models developed elsewhere.
The book is less convincing when it turns to solutions.
The authors call for stronger local infrastructure, research capacity and technical expertise. These are sensible goals. But the financial and institutional barriers need more attention.
Many governments already struggle to fund health care, education, housing and other basic services. The book does not fully explain how poorer countries can build and maintain costly digital systems without creating new forms of dependence.
Its wide geographical scope is another weakness. Africa and Asia cannot be treated as one policy space. Zimbabwe, Kenya, Indonesia, India and Singapore have very different institutions, economies and levels of technological development.
The authors recognise these differences. Still, many comparisons remain broad. More detailed country studies would have made the argument stronger.
The book also needs a deeper discussion of political and corporate power. Digital welfare systems are shaped by government priorities, procurement decisions and commercial interests. When an automated system wrongly denies support or mishandles personal data, responsibility must be clear.
The book raises important concerns, but it does not always take them far enough. Its strength lies in asking who benefits from digital change and who may be pushed aside.
It is a useful starting point, not a complete policy guide. The debate it opens deserves to continue.