Project description

Title: Youth Development through Football
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: South Africa and up to ten other African countries
Lead executing agency: Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA)
Partner: Governmental and non-governmental organisations throughout the partner countries
Overall term: 2007 to 2012

Context

More than any other sport, football has the power to unite people and cultures all over the world. As a team sport it promotes fairness and tolerance, leapfrogs gender boundaries and fosters mutual understanding, thereby contributing to the positive development of personality and character. The prospect of the first FIFA World Cup ever to be staged on the African continent in 2010 fills many Africans with a great feeling of pride. This has led to football taking on a new standing. Passion for the sport is ubiquitous, particularly among the black population in which South African football has its roots. Sport teaches strategies of peaceful debate, provides instruction in how to deal with defeat, and moulds personalities.

Objective

The project is targeted at non-profit organisations and government bodies both at national and provincial level. It aims at them using the social and educational potential of football and sports in general for youth development in South Africa and in other African countries. The focus is on disadvantaged girls and boys. The project provides skills that help them to shape their lives and improve their future perspectives and inspires to create enduring structures that will become a long-term investment.

Approach

The idea for the project originated during the 2006 football World Cup in Germany. The project cooperates with governmental and non-governmental institutions that already successfully use football for youth development and further capacitates them. It is part of the Mass Participation Programme of the South African Sports Ministry and works closely together with schools and sports coordinators. At this stage YDF is active in four of South Africa’s nine provinces and in eight other African countries. In the partner country Kenya the project is being implemented by the public benefit organisation streetfootballworld gGmbH.

Project approaches differ according to the needs of provinces and countries. Thematic focal points relevant to development include the prevention of crime and violence, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection, the promotion of peace, and possibilities for political and social participation. Interventions are aimed directly at the coaches and at the youths. Successful approaches are standardised and notated in easily understandable manuals that serve as ‘Toolkits’. These manuals provide instruction on how to train coaches to function as role models for the youth which they train, and on how football coaching can be combined meaningfully and effectively with the teaching of life skills. With the help of these manuals, young coaches are trained in such a way, that they are able to transfer the concepts of the project to the remaining South African provinces and to African partner countries. YDF uses sporting events that emphasize the promotion of youth, to explain the approach of the project. It furthers networks that focus on social change through sport.

In South Africa YDF’s focus has been on the setting up of leagues that link football with social engagement and income producing measures. In Mamelodi, a satellite township outside of Tshwane, eight primary schools have – for example – formed the “Mamelodi 8 School League” with the help of YDF, and in cooperation with the Gauteng North Sports Council and Altus Sport Vuma. “Mamelodi 8” aims to create area-wide street football opportunities to combine football with life skills and environmental training. The non-governmental organisations ‘Green Feet’ and ‘Karos & Kambro’ use the creativity of the youth to create environmental awareness and the performing arts to enhance the capacity of football teams and team captains to reach out to their team mates, coaches, educators, their families, schools and broader communities.

YDF is receiving support from two consulting firms. The Zambian EduSport Foundation is providing training for coaching instructors and coaches using the YDF tool kit, and BH Impact Assessment Services (University of Johannesburg) is supporting the project and evaluating its results.

Results achieved so far

To date, education and training measures have reached just under 14 000 youths in South Africa alone. More than 500 volunteers are active in the YDF project. More than 30 of them have already been trained as youth coaches and are implementing the YDF concept. Many of them were previously unemployed. They receive free transport and a food allowance in return for their involvement. In their communities they function as important disseminators of information and as messengers for the YDF project. Another accolade is that more than 70 employees of non-governmental organisations have been trained as youth coaches. The training manuals for instructors and coaches are currently being developed.

The “Mamelodi 8” have been fortunate enough to attract financial support from BMZ and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has built a state-of-the-art football field in the middle of the township. The German Government has plans for a further 100 football fields in the country.

YDF monitors and evaluates the project in regular workshops and as a result YDF is constantly improving its concept using football as a powerful tool for youth development. The project forms an important part of the South African-German cooperation towards the FIFA World Cup 2010.

Youth Development through Football Video

Further information

• Youth Development through Football (YDF)
  Local website of the project
  http://www.za-ydf.org
• Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa
  http://www.srsa.gov.za
• Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of South Africa
  http://www.eusa.org.za