By Harrison Jordan.
This article explores the possibilities of incorporating sports into development programming. It then examines two non-profits from South Africa and Kenya who have successfully used sport to achieve development goals.
Over the past two decades, sport has become an increasingly important tool in the developing world to help achieve development goals. Supplementing mainstream development policies, sport can promote participation, inclusion, tolerance, discipline, teamwork and many other qualities through international programmes. When one thinks about sport offering an escape route from poverty, the stories of Pelé, Michael Oher or others who have experienced similar rags-to-riches transformations through sport, spring to mind. However, this piece will instead focus on how sport has the power to help alleviate poverty and generally promote harmony at a community level, between groups of people of different backgrounds and cultures.
Nelson Mandela was famously a strong advocate of sport and its ability to transcend boundaries. During his acclaimed speech at the 1st Laureus World Sports in 2000, he talked about the power of sports to inspire, create hope, unite people and break down racial barriers. Mandela was perhaps drawing upon his experience at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, in which he donned a Springbok jersey - previously a symbol of white supremacy in South Africa - as South Africa won their first World Cup, signalling the emergence of a re-united nation. Through this victory, “collective interest transcended social differences” within South Africa, at least for a time. This victory displayed the ability of sport to foster peace and harmony even in the most divided societies. While it may have seemed like a relatively seamless transition at the time, problems of division are still prevalent and have arguably grown in South Africa since, as Morris and Hindson summarise: “old elements, ideologies and strategies remain, and social forces committed to the previous order still operate, consciously and unconsciously”. Through the greater use of sport in development programmes, these issues can be more closely targeted.
Waves for Change
One such development programme in South Africa that has aimed to tackle some of these issues is ‘Waves for Change’ (W4C). W4C is a surf-therapy programme working in communities affected by violence, poverty and conflict, where mental health services are often stigmatized and under-resourced. Through the provision of a safe space for many children struggling with mental health issues and providing them with mentors, the programme aims to help them regulate their behaviour, manage stress better, provide them with new skills and knowledge which will benefit them in the future, and generally help them make better life choices. Particularly interesting about this project is its focus on training local people to help others rather than being purely an ‘outsider’ or ‘western’ approach which a handful of academics have been critical of in other sport development projects. The skills these people learn become transferable and create a sense of empowerment. The story of Sipho, a young boy involved in the programme was covered by Sport Relief in 2018. The story starts off quite upsetting, evoking a variety of emotions from anger to guilt to anguish. However, as the story progresses you cannot help but be filled with joy and hope as Sipho finds something he loves to overcome his often complicated and difficult life in his township (full video below). What sports projects like this provide is a space for young people to forget about the struggles of life, even if only for a short time. Through getting on the water, the stress they experience in their day-to-day lives is forgotten and they can feel empowered, free, and valued. This is just one example of the ability of sport to reach marginalized people and communities and tackle issues such as mental health which has become an increasingly important topic in modern society.
Mathare Youth Sports Association
Another good example of how grassroots projects using sport are used to engender broad socio-economic development is the Mathare Youth Sport Association (MYSA) in Nairobi, Kenya. Originally founded in Mathare, one of the largest and poorest slums in Kenya in 1987, the project took the form of a self-help youth sport and community development project. Since its formation, the project has combined sport with larger development initiatives in order to provide youths with the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to aim higher and achieve a greater, more fulfilling life for themselves. Today over 30,000 youths are signed up on 2052 teams across Kenya, not only taking part in organised football games but also in neighbourhood clean-ups, HIV/AIDS awareness classes, or volunteering as referees or officials for other teams. Through this system, the teams pick up points not only through their football games, but also through their work in the wider community. Hognestad and Tollisen found the focus on local participation of this project had created a more positive social identity for those involved. Kidd, when assessing the same project, highlighted how the project has acted as a vehicle for the inclusion of girls and women, as well as other community-wide benefits. MYSA is just one example of how community-level sport and community development projects can facilitate social change and improve the lives of those involved.
In conclusion, sport is more than a simple activity undertaken for fitness or competition. Instead, it provides an arena for marginalized, underprivileged and stigmatised groups of people to come together and create a sense of belonging. Through the universal language of sport, social divides can and have been bridged. People have become more empowered, and people have escaped from trauma and stress, if only for a few hours. National governments, NGOs and international sport federations should be viewing programmes such as those mentioned above as a cost-effective method of supplementing development policies in order to achieve broader socio-economic development goals. As Nelson Mandela said famously, “sport has the power to change the World”.
By Harrison Jordan
Harrison is from England. He is a postgraduate student studying an MA in Poverty and Development at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). His background is in geography, but also maintains an avid interest in sports and their potential in the world of development.