ICSSPE to Attend 2nd Working Group Meeting in Ghana

The meeting, which will be the second overall, is set to take place from 6 to the 8 April 2014. The idea of an International Scientific Network for Sport for Development came into existence in the course of the conference on “Transformation and Development through Sport” (TADS). It was hosted in Pretoria, South Africa from 4 to 6 September 2013 by the Sport for Social Change Network (SSCN) Southern Africa and supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) as part of the initiative “Commitment for Africa”. The network’s aim would be to provide a platform for exchange and networking between German and African civil society stakeholders in the sector of Sport for Development.

The current members of this potential network are comprised of the University of Ghana, the German Sport University Cologne, the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), the NGO Breakthrough Chiparamba Sports Academy (Zambia), the NGO Rural Primary Education Developers (Ghana) and ICSSPE. Together they set the objective to develop a global and multi-disciplinary network of academic organisations and NGOs for continuous contribution to the advancement of sport for development curricula, programmes and policies. Herewith the network aims to establish evidence-based international benchmarks and standardised criteria for curriculum development and educational measures with regard to and across various policy sectors (health, development, sport, youth, education etc.), sports and working areas (community development, peace building etc.).

Concrete measures as a first step include the development of a database containing patterns, curricula, projects and partners; the provision of assistance and expertise in research, teaching and community engagement in the field of Sport for Development as well as the stimulation of a quality assurance discussion with university and non-university curriculum providers to enhance the standards and qualification levels of personnel delivering sport-for-development programmes.

As the next step prior to the 2nd Workshop the network members have agreed to conduct a mapping study on qualification schemes, curricula, toolkits and manuals for the African and European continent. Based on the findings, discussions will be held throughout the Workshop on the future project planning regarding the development of benchmarks, curricula and frameworks.