International Association for Counselling Africa

Theme: The Future of Counselling Development in Africa

Africa has 65% of the world’s strategic natural and qualified human resources and yet the continent remains poor both mentally and professionally. Africa suffers from the problem of brain drain and financial issues. Each year the continent loses 5,000 to 10,000 experts to other parts of the world including counsellors who go for greener pastures. Each year, between 5,000 and 10,000 Africans drown in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean while trying to enter Europe illegally for greener pastures (Africa’s Brain Drain Problem – Africa Times, 2015).

Many public secondary and tertiary schools in Africa seemly do not have a well-coordinated and effective counselling programme for their learners. Most often, the principal appoints any cool-headed or pious teacher to be in charge of the counselling department without proper and adequate training. The teacher assumes this dual responsibility without specific job description. For effective counselling in the best interest of African learners, a role description for school counsellor within counselling theoretical framework based on American school based policies; be it clinical, eclectic, or client-centered is what we apply in Africa. Time has come for Africans to devise their own code of ethics that will direct its counselling practitioners to savage the issues faced by its people. Each nation is unique and need to discover what will serve their people better while learning from others. No one can develop and live your life for you.

The health sector in Africa is unfledged, and many people continue to die from stress, depression and other mental health issues. The rate of suicide has increased recently ranging from children, youth and adults taking their lives. The continent has 40% infant mortality caused by malnutrition, with deaths from kwashiorkor and other diseases such as malaria, typhoid and pneumonia(Malnutrition | UNICEF West and Central Africa, 2019).  Many Africans travel to Asia, Europe and North America in ‘health tourism’ for services, which can be rendered in Africa. Africa has a big potential for clean energy.

The conference invites papers from arts and social sciences to reflect on counselling development and harmonization of counselling practices to help to bring change in Africa. How have various governments and the international community responded to the effects of behavioral change. What are some of the efforts being made by various academics disciplines, governments to address changing realities in education, behaviour modifications, medicine, politics, technology, social issues, culture, gender, youth, children, pastoralist issues, among others, in Africa? These are some of the issues that the conference will be seeking to address.

Call for Paper for the first International Association for Counselling Conference will be held in Malawi on October 24 to 26, 2022 at Sunbird Capital Hotel, Malawi. The conference will bring together Counselling Practitioners from all over the African world to make theoretical, empirical and practical presentations on matters that touch on Africa. Submission of abstracts: Send abstracts of between 250 and 500 words, including full contact details (title, name, address, email-address, and telephone) as well as institutional affiliation by July 15, 2022 to nwamama2013@gmail.com and huguetteomic@gmail.com

Submission  of  abstracts: Send  abstracts  of  between  250  and  500  words,  including  full  contact  details  (title,  name, address, email-address, and telephone) as well as institutional affiliation by June 30, 2022 to  Dr. Elizabeth Okpalaenwe,  nwamama2013@gmail.com  and Sr. Huguette Ostiguy, mic, huguetteomic@gmail.com

The deadline for submission of full papers or PowerPoint presentation (one of them is adequate) is September 15, 2022. Most papers presented at the conference will be selected to build our ethical standard of practice and published in peer-reviewed edited volumes and journals.  Each person is allowed to submit a maximum of 2 papers. We encourage authors of papers not to have too many authors. The official language of the conference is English. The conference will consist of five (5) roundtable organized along five 5 groups of themes.

Important dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts – July 15, 2022

Deadline for submission of PowerPoint presentation or full papers 15^th September, 2022

International Round Tables

The Association s’ Round Table
The Counselling Practitioners’ Round Table
The Ethics Round Table
The Research Round Table
Peace and Social Justice Round Table

Group 1: The Future of Counselling development in Africa

Sub-Themes:

1. Different theories Associated with African Practioners
2. Migration, Change and Counselling Development in Different parts of Africa
3. African cultural Indigenous practical helping relationship
4. Association work in Human Trafficking and Global Recruitment Firms
5. Project management, Entrepreneurship, Decolonization and Practical skills

Group 2:  Development of Ethical Standard of Practice for Africa

 Sub- Themes

1. Ethical Code of Standard for Africa
2. Dual Relationship In Counselling Practice in Africa
3. Professional issues in Counselling
4. Multicultural issues and it effects in counselling practice globally.
5. The use of tests in approaches to counseling practice
6.  Issues of erotic and sexual contacts with clients in African perspective
7. How to avoid plagiarism in Counselling
8. Therapist competence issues for African Viewpoints.
9.  Confidentiality issues in counselling and its understanding for Africa
10. The issues of legal implications in areas of malpractice.
11. Transparency and Accountability, Corruption and Ethics in Counselling Growth
12. Ethics of Caring in Environmental Ethics: Indigenous and Feminist Philosophies

Group 3:  Indigenous Counselling African Perspective

Sub-Themes

1.  Development in Africa: from Governance to shared Purity of life.
2. Global Environmental Movements, Climate Change, Industry and Development
3. Indigenous knowledge Systems (IKS) and change in Africa
4. African mindset on Covid-19 and Business Trends and Losses.
5. Remuneration and payment in Counselling profession
6. Harmonization of Counselling Skills for Africa

Group 4:  Practitioners Understanding of professional Issues

Sub-Themes

1.  Conflict and Personal Management
2. Self-awareness and the influence of Counsellor’s personality and needs
3. Transference and countertransference
4. Managing Job stress as Practioner
5. The challenge of remaining vital both personally and professionally
6. Counselor’s vulnerabilities in practice
7. Client’s vulnerability in Counselling room
8. Educational Levels of Counselling practices in Africa and implication for proper preparation

Group 5:  International Research

Sub-Themes

1. Lifelong learning, Open and Distance Learning (ODL), online learning, e-resources
2. Global Trends and Curriculum Development and New Pedagogies in Counselling
3.  Global Networks, Higher Education, Linkages, Research, Partnerships and Publishing
4.  Change, Industry, Linkages, Exchange Programmes and Collaborations
5.  Change and Distinctive Counselling Education
6.  Continuous Education, ICT, teleconferencing, webinars, networking and e-Learning
7.  Women, Minorities and Gender mainstreaming in Education
8.  Change and Lifelong Learning, Adult Counselling Education and Cooperative Education
9. Research Production, Graduate Training and Sources and anti-Plagiarism

Poster Presentation will be allowed.

TIME LINES

Submission of abstracts:                                               15 July 2022

Submission of completed chapters:                         15 September 2022

Submission of peer reviews:                                       30th September 2022

Submission of revised chapters:                                               5th October 2022

THE STRUCTURE LENGTH OF EACH CHAPTER

• Your article could be Empirical Research or Theoretical Study.
• All chapters are word processed using Times New Roman font size 12 single spaced. Chapters are between 3000 and 6000 words, (between 8-12 pages) notes and bibliography included.
•  Each chapter should have a title, full name of author (s) beginning with first name
•  Each chapter begins with an introduction spelling out what is going to be discussed in the chapter, background, discussion/results and ends with a conclusion summarizing the findings of the chapter.
• Footnotes are used where necessary otherwise references are made in the chapters, e.g. (Chitando 1998). 
• All sources used are must be listed in the reference section of each chapter. The following method of referencing is used: Chigabu, O. (2009). The god of Shashe. Gweru: Mambo Press. Internet sources should provide full page address plus date on which the source was accessed
• Tables or graphs should be numbered and titled accordingly.
• All references to follow the following format:

APA Reference Style

This is the style system used in psychology and established by the American Psychological Association. For guidance, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and the respective web site of the Association (http://www.apastyle.org/). The frequently asked questions section at that site contains basic examples for a journal article and a book chapter (http://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html#8). See Table 1.5 for several examples.

Springer uses a lean version of this style, which differs in several respects from the full APA style. For example, either form of citation (i.e., name–year or numbered) may be used with APA-styled references (see Sect. 10.1), and the citation of Internet publications has been simplified.

Table 1.5 Examples of basic reference entries according to APA style

Number	Type	Example
1.	Journal article	Harris, M., Karper, E., Stacks, G., Hoffman, D., DeNiro, R., Cruz, P., et al. (2001). Writing labs and the Hollywood connection. Journal of Film Writing, 44(3), 213–245.
2.	Journal article with DOI (and with page numbers)	Slifka, M.K., & Whitton, J.L. (2000). Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Journal of Molecular Medicine, 78, 74–80 (2000). doi:10.1007/s001090000086.
3.	Journal article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers)	Kreger, M., Brindis, C.D., Manuel, D.M., Sassoubre, L. (2007). Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1007/s10464-007-9108-14.
4.	Article in electronic journal by DOI (no paginated version)	Kruger, M., Brandis, C.D., Mandel, D.M., Sassoure, J. (2007). Lessons to be learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Digital Psychology. doi: 10.1007/s10469-007-5108-14.
5.	Book	Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
6.	Book chapter	O’Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men’s and women’s gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107–123). New York: Springer.
7.	Online First chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a DOI)	Saito, Y., & Hyuga, H. (2007). Rate equation approaches to amplification of enantiomeric excess and chiral symmetry breaking. Topics in Current Chemistry. doi:10.1007/128_2006_108.
8.	Book, also showing a translated edition [Either edition may be listed first.]	Adorno, T.W. (1966). Negative Dialektik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. English edition: Adorno, T.W. (1973). Negative Dialectics (trans: Ashton, E.B.). London: Routledge.
9.	Online document	Abou-Allaban, Y., Dell, M. L., Greenberg, W., Lomax, J., Peteet, J., Torres, M., Cowell, V. (2006). Religious/spiritual commitments and psychiatric practice. Resource document. American Psychiatric Association. http://www.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/200604.pdf. Accessed 25 June 2007.
10.	Online database	German emigrants database (1998). Historisches Museum Bremerhaven. http://www.deutsche-auswanderer-datenbank.de. Accessed 21 June 2007.
11.	Supplementary material/private homepage	Doe, J. (2006). Title of supplementary material. http://www.privatehomepage.com. Accessed 22 Feb 2007.
12.	FTP site	Doe, J. (1999). Trivial HTTP, RFC2169. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2169.txt. Accessed 12 Feb 2006.
13.	Organization site	ISSN International Centre (2006). The ISSN register. http://www.issn.org. Accessed 20 Feb 2007.

Registration Fees:

1. Members of the International Association for Counselling Africa (IAC)

Physical presentation in Malawi: US$ 80; Virtual Presentation: US$ 50

2. Exhibition and advertising stand – US$ 200

Accommodation in Malawi or Need for Transport for Airport

Place of Conference: at Sunbird Capital Hotel, Malawi

Payment for three days:   US $ 80

Information is on the website and should be email to

malawimac@gmail.com or huguetteomic@gmail.com

Link for Payment:  see on website www.mwcounselling.org

ALL GENERAL ENQUIRIES TO BE ADDRESSED TO:

Dominic   Nsona – Convener and Chair

Malawi Association of Counselling

Box 31105, A47/2/50

Lilongwe, Malawi

E-mail: Dominic.nsona@gmail.com

Website link: www.mwcounselling.org

References

African Times. (2015). Solving Africa’s Brain Drain Problem – Africa Times  https://africatimes.com/2015/07/24/solving-africas-brain-drain-problem/

Effectiveness of Research and Innovation Management – OECD (2020).

https://www.oecd.org › sti › Effectiveness of research.

Malnutrition | UNICEF West and Central Africa   (2019). https://www.unicef.org/wca/malnutrition