Important issues poverty

Introduction themes

1. The local level

Crucial issues to focus on here are

Local co-operation opportunities
Relevance of organisational and institutional assessment
Limited local organisational capacity
Limited career possibilities for staff
No financial contributions from domestic sources
No long term financial security
Limited possibilities to set up income generating activities
Short term partnerships
Little (or no) involvement of local structures / funding
Cultural tradition of donors and recipients on how to organise sport, limit the perspective on local sport structures. (commonwealth school & sport and sport for all, country clubs, NL and Germany sport club structure and sport community work, former communist countries: sport through state and state industry e.g. Zambia)
Bad examples of sport schools (mostly in football) make this model not very popular among donors, but good examples exist
Are democratic value and good governance within organisations on local level crucial for sustainability?

Tools local level

Document from the NextStep! Conference Amsterdam ( word)

2. The (inter)national level

The crucial issues here are:

Donor and receiver have different priorities
The relevance of institutional assessment
Decentralisation (when?, how?)
Choices: Who decides where/what to support
Policy wishes/demands of external donor
Labelled funding
National domestic structure having priorities differing from those at international and/or local level
Long term processes (requiring long term involvement)

Tools (inter)national level

Critical success factors from the NextStep! Conference ( word)
Sport in Development: Teamwork Scores! Policy Memorandum on sport in the context of development cooperation (By the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, 01 10 2000) This policy memorandum represents another step forward for the Netherlands. It spells out the background to policy and the way it is to be implemented. Successful implementation will demand effective teamwork by all the players. And that sort of teamwork is precisely what makes our use of sport in development cooperation so important! ( word)

We also present the following legal examples from South Africa provided by the South African Sports Commission:

An example of a national sports promotion policy (national sport and recreation act) ( pdf)
An Act for the flourishing from Non-Government Organisations in the same nation (Non Profit) ( pdf)
A third Act stipulates the establishment of a national sports commission (which published some of the leaflets quoted under the local and capacity building sections, SASCAct) ( pdf)
A Regulation on the Recognition of Sports and Recreation Bodies, which fits within the framework of these previous Acts. ( pdf)

3. Capacity building level

For this level we have defined the following crucial issues:

How can we improve the value of the certificate or diploma that is awarded to the coach or the manager? Is it helpful if it is accepted as part of a national qualification system in education?
How can we improve the quality of the local education system in sport and PE? Are apprenticeships or periods of learning on the job helpful? What about co-operation with Teachers Colleges, with Sports, Youth and PE institutes?
How can we reach more women, persons with a disability and other often underrepresented groups in sports to participate in courses?
If coaches/ trainers and managers are considered locally key persons in e.g. informing about health risks, recognising trauma's, how to include these and other social issues in sport specific courses?
What do we offer on sports activities in courses for all kinds of social workers?
What can be offer to course participants if there is not much paid work to do but merely volunteers are asked for?
How do we link training of coaches and trainers to (national) government policy on education?

Tools capacity building

To find elaborate best practices on capacity building, the reader may refer to many of the tools presented in the poverty tools section, as these instructions and manuals often combine instructions with illustrations of best practices.
On top of these documents this section presents a South African leaflet for administrators and managers on skills programmes for sport and recreation ( pdf)

4. The sustainability dimension

The sustainability or long-term (economic) impact dimension, which includes local and (inter-) national level. However in this dimension the local and (inter-) national level are looked at over a longer time span, and from a bigger distance - looking at overall impact rather than tracing the individual effects of single projects and events or even programmes.

A crucial issue in this respect is the partnership development between donor and so-called recipient countries cum organisations. The workshop report Donor Funding for Sport and Development: A Recipient Partner Perspective provides a precise and at the same time comprehensive overview of experiences, challenges and possible answer on the issue of donor-recipient realtions in view of sustainability ( pdf)