Social Work training in Uganda began with the establishment of Nsamizi Institute for Social Development in early 1950s. The Institute awarded Diplomas and Certificates in Social Work.

Later in mid 1960s, Makerere University opened the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, which awarded degrees in Social Work and Social Administration. As the number of Social Workers from Nsamizi and Makerere increased, the desire for a professional Association increased. This led to the birth of NASWU around 1972/3. Throughout the mid-1970s, NASWU was active and published a magazine called “The Intervener” where Social Workers in different agencies published articles on various topics.

NASWU was affected by the political instability that began during the 1979 Liberation war and the civil war of the early 1980s. In such hard times attention turned to survival and participation in NASWU suffered. First attempts to revive NASWU happened when Uganda hosted a Pan-Africa Social Work Conference in 1985, but the effort was not sustained after the conference, because of the severe economic situation in post-war Uganda [1986-1990]. The second attempt at revival began in 1992 when, with the assistance of the Norwegian Association of the Disabled (NAD), workshops were organized on Disability and development in Uganda.

In 2000 NASWU entered a friendship with the Danish Association of Social Workers (DS) Aalborg branch. A team from DS visited Uganda early 2000. Later that year, two NASWU representatives visited Aalborg, Denmark.
In 2001 DS assisted NASWU to conduct a newspaper survey of Social Workers in Uganda. A database of over 1000 contacts was developed. In the same year, the NASWU General Assembly adopted the revised Constitution. But the interest of Social Workers in their Association continued to be erratic with low payment of membership fees. As a result, NASWU lacked an office and the few active members of the Executive continued to transact NASWU work in their offices.

In 2005 some members of the Executive Committee attended the 6th Pan-Africa Social Work Conference in Nairobi and were greatly encouraged and enthused by the presence of many Social Workers from several African countries. Early 2006, Uganda was requested to host the 7th Pan-Africa Social Work Conference. The NASWU National Executive Committee (NEC) accepted to host the conference which was held successfully at Hotel Africana and was attended by 110 participants from all-over Africa and around the world.

Following increase in the number of Universities in Uganda after 2000, there is tremendous increase in the number of Social Work graduates. This has greatly improved the interest of Social Workers in their professional Association. There is a passionate demand from across the country to revive NASWU. Given this expressed need, the National Executive Committee (NEC) has given full priority to this renewed interest in NASWU to achieve full revival.

A “working group” is currently holding regular meetings towards November 28, 2009 when a General Meeting will be held to elect a new Executive Committee and re-launch NASWU.