Abstract
Sport was an increasingly attractive intervention for development advocates in an era of neoliberal thinking. With the growing emphasis placed upon social capital, advocates for sport-based programming sought to move beyond sport development to sport-for-development. A variety of institutions and individuals were influential in this evolution of sport- for-good. Included among these were multilateral or intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth, and the International Olympic Committee. Some approached sport-for-development from a development perspective; others were sport-focused. But it was their subsequent collaborations in conference meeting rooms and on the ground that lent legitimacy to sport-for-development and momentum to its institutionalization as the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
FIFA, cited in Fred Coalter, “The Politics of Sport-for-Development: Limited focus programmes and broad gauge problems?,” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 45, no. 3 (2010): 303.
- 2.
See Mick Green, “Changing Policy Priorities for Sport in England: The emergence of elite sport development as a key policy concern,” Leisure Studies 23, no. 4 (2004): 365–85.
- 3.
Fred Coalter, Sport for Development: What game are we playing? (London: Routledge, 2013).
- 4.
Coalter, 2007.
- 5.
Coalter, Sport for Development, 153.
- 6.
Coalter, “The Politics of Sport-for-Development.”
- 7.
While not entirely accurate as a collective description, “intergovernmental” describes the Commonwealth and UN. This is less true for the IOC, as National Olympic Committees cannot be considered “member states” in the sense intended by “intergovernmental”; nor does “supranational” apply as the IOC is not a governmental structure above the level of individual nations. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this discussion, the term “intergovernmental” is being used for the sake of simplicity.
- 8.
“Timeline of Major Developments in Sport and Development,” sportanddev.org, https://www.sportanddev.org/en/learn-more/history-sport-and-development/timeline-major-developments-sport-and-development, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 9.
Lyndsay M. Hayhurst, “The power to shape policy: Charting sport for development and peace policy discourses,” International Journal of Sport Policy 1, no. 2 (2009): 203–27.
- 10.
Sport for Development and Peace (Berne: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2005), retrieved from http://schwery.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/sdc_sport_magglingen2005_eng.pdf, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 11.
The Call to Action targeted ten types of stakeholders and called on them to contribute to sport for development: sport organizations; athletes; multilateral organizations and the UN system; bilateral development agencies; governments across all sectors; the armed forces; non-governmental organizations; the private sector and sports industry; research institutions; and media.
- 12.
Somewhat ironically, the third Magglingen conference, planned for 2008, was canceled when the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) pulled its funding of the event. This was after Walter Fust, SDC Director General, had stated at the conclusion of the second Magglingen that “The conference is one more milestone on the path to a worldwide partnership of sport and development. We are going in the right direction but we are not doing enough.” “United Nations Sport Bulletin,” no. 13, 6 December 2005, https://www.un.org/sport2005/newsroom/bulletin/un_sport_bulletin_13.pdf, accessed 10 July 2018.
- 13.
Cleve Dheensaw, The Commonwealth Games: The First 60 Years, 1930–1990 (Victoria, BC: Orca Publisher, 1994), 2.
- 14.
See Bruce Kidd, “Canada and sport for development and peace,” in Sport policy in Canada eds. Lucie Thibault and Jean Harvey (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2013), 69–94.
- 15.
Barrie Houlihan, Sport and International Politics (Hemel Hempstead, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994), 150.
- 16.
Kidd, “Canada and sport for development and peace,” 74.
- 17.
What follows is based on Kidd, “Canada and sport for development and peace.”
- 18.
The CSMM occur every two years—most recently in Rio de Janeiro in 2016—on the eve of the Commonwealth Games or the summer Olympic Games.
- 19.
The Commonwealth’s Eminent Persons Group is the structure for high-powered task forces to address difficult problems, that is, it was a time-limited work group. The most famous one was commissioned in 1985 to address apartheid. The most recent one was appointed in 2009 and reported in 2011 to deal with various calls for reform, including human rights. Several of the recommendations (#102–106) affirmed the importance of SDP within the Secretariat and the Commonwealth Games.
- 20.
Rwanda and Sri Lanka were the two countries to report on SDP-related initiatives at subsequent CABOS and Sports Ministers Meetings. As Oliver Dudfield notes: “the pilots have led to a more substantive technical assistance program and broader program of work that encompasses policy analysis and guidance as well as promoting pan-Commonwealth collaboration through Sports Ministers Meetings, CABOS and the Commonwealth Youth SDP Network. The Commonwealth has now delivered SDP technical assistance in Sierra Leone, Zambia, Mauritius, Botswana and Bangladesh. Moreover, a sport for development and peace outcome is one of four new intermediate outcomes in the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Strategic Plan 2017/18–2020/21.” See “Commonwealth Secretariat Strategic Plan, 2017/18–2020/21,” The Commonwealth, http://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/inline/CommonwealthSecretariatStrategic_Plan_17_21.pdf, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 21.
See Aaron Beacom, “A question of motives: Reciprocity, sport and development assistance,” European Sport Management Quarterly 7, no. 1 (2007): 81–107.
- 22.
Robert S. Millington, “The United Nations and Sport for Development and Peace: A Critical History” (PhD dissertation, Queen’s University [Canada], 2015). Millington documents the ways in which sport was taken up within the UN system and their approach to development.
- 23.
The UN agencies involved included ILO, UNESCO, WHO, UNDP, UNV, UNEP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNODC, and UNAIDS.
- 24.
Cited in Gary Rhodes and Jessica Zlotnicki, “Initiatives beyond the Competition: Common Purposes Connection International Sport and Education,” in Olympism, Olympic Education and Learning Legacies, ed. Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, Norbert Müller (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 3.
- 25.
Millington, “The United Nations and Sport for Development and Peace.”
- 26.
Ibid., 35.
- 27.
Mads A. Wickstrøm, “UN Secretary-General closes UNOSDP,” Play the Game, http://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2017/0309_un-secretary-general-closes-unosdp/, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 28.
The International Olympic Committee defines Olympism as “a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” “Promote Olympism in Society,” International Olympic Committee, https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc/promote-olympism, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 29.
Nicolien van Luijk, “A historical examination of the IOC and UN partnership, 1952–1980,” (Lausanne: IOC Olympic Studies Centre, 2013), 37. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275211629_A_Historical_Examination_of_the_IOC_and_UN_Partnership_1952_%2D%2D-_1980
- 30.
“In Senegal, the First OlympAfrica Centre,” Olympic Review, no. 270 (1990): 188; “Children from Africa embody the Olympic values during the OlympAfrica FutbolNet Cup 2017,” International Olympic Committee, 16 June 2017, https://www.olympic.org/news/children-from-africa-embody-the-olympic-values-during-the-olympafrica-futbolnet-cup-2017, accessed 10 July 2018.
- 31.
Millington, “The United Nations and Sport for Development and Peace,” 40.
- 32.
Jacques Rogge, “First International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development” (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 2009), 5, https://sportdocbox.com/Olympics/77641257-First-international-forum-on-sport-peace-and-development.html, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 33.
“UN granted UN Observer Status at General Assembly Meeting,” sportanddev.org, 21 October 2009, https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/ioc-granted-un-observer-status-general-assembly-meeting, accessed 9 July 2018.
- 34.
Cited in Millington, “The United Nations and Sport for Development and Peace,” 41.
- 35.
See Byron Peacock, “‘A Secret Instinct of Social Preservation’: Legitimacy and the dynamic (re)constitution of Olympic conceptions of the ‘good’,” Third World Quarterly 32, no. 3 (2011): 477–502.
- 36.
These kinds of partnerships continue today and include international sport federations such as the International Basketball Federation, Volleyball Federation, as well as table tennis and taekwondo.
- 37.
And, as it turns out, support to help her protect her own rather precarious position within the UNHCR. This was not particularly successful. In Thachuk’s words, another “fight was just keeping the job, it was definitely a fight. When I left, someone else filled my position, and it didn’t last long. I think six months to one year and the whole thing kind of fizzled out.”
- 38.
Jonathan Clayton and Luiz Godinho, “Historic Olympics come to an end in style for Team Refugees,” UNHCR, 22 August 2016, http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/8/57ba85674/historic-olympics-end-style-team-refugees.html, accessed July 9, 2016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Darnell, S.C., Field, R., Kidd, B. (2019). Sport-for-Development and the International Community. In: The History and Politics of Sport-for-Development. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43944-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43944-4_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-43943-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43944-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)