Sport and Peacebuilding in Conflict-affected Countries
Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy
"While there has been good project-specific evaluation of such initiatives, and there are many heartwarming anecdotes of effective contributions to peace, there is scant rigorous scholarly research on sport-related programming’s effectiveness in contributing to peacebuilding at the national or country level.
Is sport-for-peace programming scalable beyond small or targeted efforts and sustainable over time through developing local capacities and social entrepreneurship? This two-year research project addresses sport-related programming for peacebuilding. It addresses the question: Under what conditions, and in what ways, does internationally supported sport programming contribute to building peace in conflict-affected countries? Focus areas include refugees and displaced persons, programs involving ex-combatants, local-level initiatives, and national-level initiatives.
Project activities include a meta-analysis of research findings, a project and lessons-learned inventory, interviews on best practices with practitioners, and six in-depth country case studies. Research will be carried out in Colombia, Nepal, and South Africa in phase 1 of the project (2019), and in El Salvador, Kenya, and the Philippines in phase 2 (2020).
The project will yield six country-level case study reports, an integrated final report and scholarly monograph, and a policy/practitioner –oriented project report that succinctly presents principal findings and practice-oriented lessons learned."
