YDS communiqué in support for sport for development

Participants at the recently held maiden edition of the Youth Development through Sports’ (YDS Ghana) Forum (S4D Forum 2012) in Accra with the theme, Sports – An effective tool for Social Development resolved that a lot more needs to be done in the area of sport for development.

A communiqué issued after the Forum, stated that an annual platform to debate Sports for Development (S4D) is long overdue and that the conference must be held annually.

The five – point communiqué acknowledged that Government is a major stakeholder to any sports for development agenda, especially because the government of Ghana was a signatory to the 2003 UN sports for development and peace report.

In this regard, it recommends that government allocates 5% of annual budgets at the district level towards Sports for Development and Peace. Coming on the head of the 2012 general elections, all political parties are enjoined to incorporate Sports for Development in their manifestoes.

The role of the media was important in the creation of awareness for the Sports for Development concept and acknowledged what has been done by the media so far.

However reportage on sports for development is very low and believed that the media needed to understand the concept of Sports for Development very well to enable them improve considerably in their reportage.

The statement singed by Board Chairman of YDS Ghana, Kodwo Morgan, called on the print media to dedicate one page a week for sports for development, TV and radio stations should have at least monthly programmes solely on sports for development with SWAG encouraged to institute an annual award for organizations in the promotion of sports for development.

The communiqué said, for sports for development to be effective, the target should be at the district level, especially in districts which have a short fall in the MDG’s.

NGO’s in sports for development should not only concentrate in Greater Accra and regional capitals, but should also operate in other parts of the country and government agencies and district assemblies must prepare a platform for organizations in the field of Sports for Development to take advantage of.

Traditional leaders must be schooled in the concept of Sports for Development for them to play an active role.

The communiqué ended by saying that 90% of Sports for Development programmes use football to the neglect of other sports and African games. Ghana should set its own standards for all S4D organizations both local and foreign to follow and that football must be de-emphasized with other games also being used to break the gender imbalance and encourage girls to participate in the S4D agenda using sports like athletics, handball, basketball, volleyball, ampe etc.

Source: George Osei(okotosports@yahoo.com)