2nd International Forum on Sport for Peace - Naciones Unidas

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mr John marks,
President, search for Common ground
<strong>2nd</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Forum</strong> on Sport for Peace & Development
summaries
Mr Marks presented the approach of his organisation, which used the attraction and values of sport
to teach communities how to cooperate and solve their intercultural problems. This was done in
particular through soap operas and radio shows portraying a fictional football team and playing out
problems that occur in real life, also providing solutions and resolutions to these issues. Football was
seen as a metaphor for life. In Kenya, the soap opera reached four million people a week, showing
the power of combining sport with media outreach.
ms Jutta Engelhardt,
head of sport and Development, swiss Academy for Development
Her presentation touched on several traditional levels of sports involvement, such as policy and
management, while focusing on the dimensions related to implementation on the ground.
She recalled that peace-building is relationship-building and allows people to meet, reconcile,
overcome fears and build understanding. It is necessary to create safe spaces where people lose
the fear of talking about their lives and fears, where they feel comfortable. Using these spaces to
implement sport is making them most effective in the process of peace-building.
She also stressed the importance of providing skills-building to people going onto the field, and in
particular coaches, as it is critical to have the historical knowledge of the situation, to consider the
different settings and understand the religious differences. They also need to have knowledge about
conflict transformation and skills adapted to the situation. Sending a coach with non-adapted skills
can cause more harm than good.
She finally advocated for more monitoring and evaluation as well as accurate accountability to
donors. It is imperative to collect the right data, make them available and be prepared to ask critical
questions in order to improve activities and projects in the longer run. To learn something, project
leaders must see as fundamental to foster the necessary learning, the critical reflection on what is
done and the necessary scale-up, because sport can make a difference.
Questions & Answers
The discussions reiterated that sport is not a panacea for all problems. However, best practices have
shown that Olympic- and sports-related education could bring a positive change to communities
affected by conflict. Nevertheless, it was underlined that, even if Olympic education is possible
everywhere, it is not sure that education as seen in Europe can be transposed in Africa or Asia.
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