But sport being such a "powerful tool" must leave the implementers with a huge responsibility.

Sport, in its traditional form, is not a conflict preventative instrument. On the contrary, the nature of sport is exactly the opposite "a physical contest between people or teams with different goals". For us to be able to effectively use sport as a peace building tool and to control the results and impact we must know what we are doing. The implementation and how sport is being preserved is the key not sport alone. The balance between developing sport in its traditional form and using sport to achieve peaceful coexistence can only be managed by conscious and planned implementation, increased research, concept development and understanding and increased training of field implementers.

There is a compelling need for more research in the area of sport and development, in order to validate that the psychological sport programs are truly being helpful for children and how.

Dr. Robert Henley,

Swiss Academy for Development (SAD, 2005)

Pelle Kvalsund