ABSTRACT
As the following chapters highlight, the use of sport in an attempt to facilitate perceived improvements in international social and economic development is not new. Sport has been used historically (dating back centuries but especially during colonial times and in the post-1960 ‘independence’ era) in (often unsuccessful) attempts to impose order and unity on populations. It has also been used sporadically by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to promote development. For example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) developed their International Charter on Physical Education and Sport in 1978 and the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) has been running in the Mathare suburb of Nairobi since 1987. Both have been reasonably well documented by the academic disciplines of sociology, history and of course sports studies (see for example Wagg 1995; Guttmann 1994; MacKenzie 1984; Maguire 1999; Willis 2000). The focus of this chapter is on the significant increase in the last decade in the use of sport to improve the social and economic environments faced by those living in precarious conditions. ‘Precarious’ here means communities living with one or more of the following:
Sustained poverty, which includes starvation, poor diets and limited access to (clean) water
High prevalence of disease (low life expectancy)
War-torn society and/or unstable/authoritarian political systems
Low levels of economic development (notably trade and investment) and infrastructure (especially communications networks and limited health care or education systems)
Significant levels of discrimination and exclusion based on gender, sexual equality, social stratification systems, etc.
Although such conditions might be found in some areas of the world that the World Bank classify as high-income countries, they are more likely to be found in low-income regions. 1 Geographically, this means large areas of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South America, Asia, the Pacific and eastern/central Europe.