SPORT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sport is increasingly recognized as an enabler of a sustainable development. In both humanitarian and development work it is accepted that sport can contribute to the empowerment of children, youth, and communities as well as to physical and mental health, education, social inclusion, and peacebuilding.

In GAME we are keenly aware that sports can be a gateway to engaging youth in sustainable development in many arenas. Our volunteers are role models in their communities and towards our target groups, and they are dedicated and curious about how they can make a diference both inside and outside of the basketball court or football feld.

GAME has created a Sport for Sustainable Development model that illustrates how GAME, through partnerships, can be part of the solution in an array of diferent societal arenas with our core methodology as the common starting point. It’s a dynamic model that changes, according to the challenges and needs of the communities we work in. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of an immediate challenge that GAME, like many others, tried our best to respond to.

An example is our volunteers who became role models in safe distancing and basic hygiene. The COVID-19 pandemic in this case underscoring the potential in linking sport activities to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) initiatives. Another example is the feld of entrepreneurship where GAME, together with our partner JYIF( Jordan Youth Innovation Forum)3, created the Street Sports Incubator where young people are supported in developing their business ideas and building employability skills through entrepreneurship and labour market skills training.

At the center of everything, we have our core method: youth-led street sports and street culture, with a focus on empowerment, life skills development, and safe spaces. This method is always at the center, also when we explore new arenas for sustainable development. Sport is a universal language that all children and youth understand. Besides all the obvious benefts mentioned above, it also has the ability to promote mutual understanding and respect, facilitate social inclusion and cohesion, and - maybe most importantly - create hope.

Having sport as the strong common denominator closer to many children and youth’s hearts and everyday life, GAME attracts children and youth who are difcult to reach with traditional democracy, livelihoods, and peacebuilding programs. This places GAME with an open platform for children and youth that we use in a way which contributes to the sustainable development of the societies in which we work.