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The future of sport and development: Uniting different approaches and actors

Young people playing wheelchair basketball in a huddle
Copyrights: UNOSDP (Photo)

The future of sport and development: Uniting different approaches and actors

We have identified ten themes that authors emphasised in our recent call for articles on the future of sport and development.

Now is our time to seek out a better future for individuals and the planet as a whole. By embracing the UN’s 2030 Agenda and using the SDGs as a compass for sporting programmes and policy development, all stakeholders have an opportunity to contribute to this positive momentum.

Sophie Spink and Mark Abberley, Portas Consulting

While there is value in recognising the distinctions between different forms of sport, writers also argued that integrating sport for development, sport for all and elite sport as a united sector would contribute more effectively to sport playing a role in development, including to the SDGs as a collective framework.

This relates to a broader issue. Should sport for development consider itself a separate sector? Or is it rather a methodology and approach that uses sport to promote outcomes beyond the playing field? Greater synergies between sport for development actors, traditional sport structures such as federations, the public sector and development institutions are needed to make such approaches more widely used and accepted.

What are the other topics writers emphasised? Find out more.


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Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - 16:48