The Commonwealth Guide to Advancing Development through Sport

Abstract

Sport is the most visible face of the Commonwealth today, with international cricket, netball and rugby dominated by Commonwealth nations, giving world-wide media coverage to the strengths and narratives of Commonwealth cultural ties, while the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games showcase the youth of all 71 Commonwealth nations and territories.Yet well below the publicised championships, sport is becoming a signature achievement of the Commonwealth in other, perhaps even more vital ways, contributing to the Commonwealth goals of development, democracy and diversity through Commonwealth partnerships in development through sport. In fact, during the last twenty years, the Commonwealth has been a major site of development through sport, as governments, non-governmental organisations and sports bodies from all corners of the Commonwealth work to use grass roots sport-based approaches to contribute to the education, employment, health, gender equity and safety of children and youth, the overwhelming majority of the citizens of the Commonwealth. So effective has this work been that Commonwealth leaders, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Commonwealth sports ministers and the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport have all agreed that development through sport should be strengthened. This Guide, prepared by the Commonwealth Secretariat, will enable member governments take development through sport to the next step. It is both an intelligent digest of the research and 'best practices' of the interventions of the last two decades, and wise, succinct advice to governments about how they can frame inclusive, workable policies and plan, conduct, and monitor and evaluate accessible, effective programmes. It will prove of enormous benefit to governments and decision-makers. I commend this insightful contribution.

Sport for Development Programs Contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 5: A Review

“…In contrast, the SDGs are more cross-cutting and universal in terms of their intersectional characteristics and geographical targets. The individual SDGs rely on and influence the development agendas related to other SDGs [52]. The universal SDGs were designed to tackle developmental challenges in both developed and developing countries [53].…”