ABSTRACT
In launching the International Year of Sport and PE the United Nations (2005: 1) stated that although it had previously collaborated with a range of organisations in the commercial, public and voluntary sectors, ‘what was missing, however, was a systematic approach to an important sector in civil society: sport’. This is followed by the assertion of the need to ‘ensure that this powerful and diverse element of civil society becomes an active and committed force in the global partnership for development’. In an earlier document the United Nations (2003: 15) stressed the centrality of volunteering in sport and argued that it contributes to ‘social welfare, community participation, generation of trust and reciprocity, and the broadening of social interaction through new networks. Consequently, volunteerism creates social capital, helping to build and consolidate social cohesion and stability’. Here the themes of this chapter are identified — civil society, social capital and the role of sport-for-development organisations.
