ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine the approaches used by government, non-government (NGOs), and private organizations seeking to utilize sport to promote local development—specifically in developing sport programs that might directly or indirectly lead to poverty eradication at local and regional levels. While not all sport for development programs of this nature are statedly designed to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 1, there are thousands of programs worldwide that have been structured to use sport participation, sport enterprise, or sport-based education to enhance the economic well-being of local residents. In this chapter, the authors draw on a series of examples—with a focus on the case of a small program in rural China—to show the objectives and efficaciousness of such programs. Through this review, they also provide a discussion on how the measurement of program effectiveness is often complicated by inconsistent definitions of poverty (and measures for the eradication thereof), underdeveloped methods for assessing program effectiveness, and a broad range of political contingencies unique to each local context that further complicate funding and operations for these programs.
