Social Work Responses to Climate-Induced Vulnerability in Northern Nigeria: Theorising Environmental Social Work Practice

Climate change is transforming the social welfare landscape in northern Nigeria through intensifying drought, desertification, flooding, and food insecurity, yet environmental social work theory and practice remain nascent fields within Nigerian social work scholarship. This doctoral study theorises environmental social work practice in the context of climate-induced vulnerability in northern Nigeria, generating empirical data from Kebbi, Yobe, and Borno States. A critical realist paradigm is employed, combining a large-scale mixed-method study involving surveys of 300 climate-affected households, 40 social workers, and 20 key informant interviews with environmental and welfare policy actors, alongside analysis of climate vulnerability assessments. Structural equation modelling, multilevel regression, and critical discourse analysis are applied. The study's original theoretical contribution is the development of the Climatic Welfare Vulnerability Model, which maps the pathways through which climate hazards translate into social welfare need and identifies leverage points for social work preventive and curative intervention. The study demonstrates that climate-induced displacement, agricultural livelihood destruction, and water insecurity are the dominant mechanisms generating social welfare need in the study states, and that current social work practice is inadequately theorised and resourced to respond. Methodological contributions include the first application of structural equation modelling to environmental social work research in Nigeria. Keywords: environmental social work, climate vulnerability, northern Nigeria, Climatic Welfare Vulnerability Model, climate-induced displacement