International and UK Sports Development - Assignment Example

 Contents UNOSDP (United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace) 3 UNICEF(United Nations Children’s Fund) 6 Sports governing organizations in the UK 8 List of figures Figure 1; the logo for UNOSDP………………………………………………………4 Figure 2; showing the logo for UNICEF……………………………………………...6 Figure 3; showing sports governing organizations in the UK ………………….…………………………….8 International and UK Sports Development Sports are mainly physical activities that are performed by two or more people. In the UK, Sport UK is the organization which is responsible for development and promoting sporting interests at different levels starting from local, sub-regional and at the regional levels in UK. The sporting activities include Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Cricket, Rugby, Golf and many others. It has been outlined in the UK’s sporting objectives as activities that help build character of an individual and also help in developing the aspiration policies like health improvement in the community. The fame and interests that have been brought about by sports have resulted to gargantuan funding of the activity from both the UK government and the private sector. Internationally, sporting activities have also been promoted and sponsored by international organizations and managed by international governing bodies like FIFA and IOC. Objectives of the study Who governs international and UK sports development? International sporting aims and initiatives. UK sporting aims and initiatives. Comparison, contrast and analysis of international and UK sports development. Discussion International sports governing bodies, funding and expenditures International sports has been promoted and funded by international bodies in both non-governmental and governmental organisation. The organizations include the UN, UNOSDP, UNICEF, IOC, UEFA and FIFA. UNOSDP (United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace) Figure 1; the logo for UNOSDP UNOSDP is a subsidiary of the UN (United Nations), and it supports sports because this activity plays a crucial role in society. The organization gets most of its funds from donations that are offered by governments and other non-governmental organizations. The organization then uses these funds for supporting sporting activities as it tries to reach for the community and promote peace and development as outlined the organizations missions, for example, the organization received an award from UEFA in 2010 during the Monaco’s charity award for being the best humanitarian using soccer to touch lives.(Fundsforngos, 2011). Sporting activities promoted unity in the community by bringing people together during sporting events. Members of the community were able to interact and socialise during sports. Since sporting presents a natural partnership, it was adopted by the UN while coining the fundamental rights of sport and play that have to be respected and enforced worldwide (UNOSDP, 2013). The UN also has recognised and used sports as a high impact and low cost tool for peace building, humanitarian and developmental efforts. It becomes not only easy but also effective and appropriate opportunity to pass across the message of peaceful coexistence among the multitudes who normally gather together to witness sporting activities. The UN uses the convening power that is brought about by sport as a cross-cutting device for promoting and carrying out various humanitarian activities like mobilization for Fundraising, raising of public awareness on basic issues that touches on the daily life of the community members, economic developments programmes and peace promotion both within one given nation and at international level (UNOSDP, 2013) UNOSDP promote integration of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) policy by giving recommendations for it to be integrated into national government development strategies. It achieves this by promoting and supporting policies and programmes that are facilitated by national governments that are aimed at harnessing the strengths of sports to gain developmental objectives like MDGs(millennium development goals)(UNOSDP, 2013) MDGs that were established during the UN Summit of the Millennium that was held in September 2000. Set out eight MDGs that were aimed at both eradicating and reducing child mortality, poverty in poor countries, disease and hunger. It is also through sporting activities that promote education, gender equality among members of the community, maternal health, conserving and sustaining the environment together with global partnerships. There has been a target set for achieving these MDGs to be 2015. The UNOSDP has elaborate strategies that are grouped into three main components that are aimed at implementing the above set MDGs (UNOSDP, 2013). 1. Building awareness through encouraging dialogue on sport for development & peace by maintaining and expanding the number of governments that are actively engaged in SDP; strengthen the existing SDP approved initiatives of governments; Support the integration of UNOSDP for national and international development strategies 2. Reporting on activities of national governments. This is achieved through encouraged reporting on progress of governments in developing and implementing sport for development; Support nations with bids and media for national and international tournaments. 3. Building capacity of national governments by supporting governments in policy development and implementation matters related to sports (UNOSDP, 2013). UNICEF(United Nations Children’s Fund) Figure 2; showing the logo for UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was established with the aim of promoting the health status in the world by reducing child mortality rates and improves child development. This has necessitated the organization to actively participate in the developing sports in the world as a way of reaching out to the children and their parents to promote their development (Fund, 2012). UNICEF main source of finance is donations from member states and also other non-governmental organizations. The organization then uses this cash in financing sporting activities in the world as a way of touching the hearts of children and youths promote their healthy living (Fundsforngos, 2011). Thus, sporting activities are particularly valuable in accordance with the reasons for the existence of UNICEF. This is because sports play an extremely vital contribution to the human health and wellbeing by bringing happiness to both adults and the youths. Participation in sports by young people in areas like structured recreation facilities contributes a lot to both their physical as well as psychosocial development. Sporting can also teach the youth’s basic values together with life skills due to their active participation in these activities. This is because sport encompasses all forms of physical activity that are capable of contributing towards physical fitness, mental well-being and social interaction as they come together either to witness or to actively take part in the sporting activity. UNICEF is involved in the management and governance of sport for its Development aspect among members of the participating community. This is clearly stated in their mission that aims at ensuring children’s rights for recreation in safe and healthy environment. They actively partake in this crucial exercise so as to contribute towards the achievement of MDGs. Sports for development policy has also been proved to help fight discrimination in the society and the exclusion of marginalized groups, including children with disabilities. In order for the above stated reasons aims of developing sports to be implemented, UNICEF has to Work closely with charity organization and sports governing bodies to achieve the above aims. This is vividly demonstrated through UNICEF’s ability to work real closely with both the national as well as federations for international sport, sport organizations, the non-governmental associations together with the media to support the right of children to play, to deliver among other things the main messages, to mobilize communities, important of all to ensure the most if not all of the long-term development of children, their families, as well as their communities. Sports is also supported and in instance governed by other international bodies like UEFA, FIFA, IOC and ICC. Whereby UEFA governs and manages football in Europe, FIFA manages and governs world football, IOC(International Olympic Committee) is charged with the responsibility of organizing, managing and staging world sports events that bring together participants of various sporting activities in the world. Sports governing organizations in the UK Figure 3; showing sports governing organizations in the UK. In the UK, there are as many sporting organizations as the sporting activities. These sporting organizations are responsible for governing and developing their respective sporting activities starting from registering individuals and clubs, organizing tournaments and managing those tournaments (Sports governing bodies, 2013). The organizations include UK Athletics for governing and developing Athletic, Basketball England for managing baseball, British Cycling for cycling, The Football Association for managing and developing football in England, Rugby Football Union for Rugbyetc (Sports governing bodies, 2013). The organizations get their funding from individuals sponsorship like in the case of the football club of Blackburn that gets it funds from the wealthy Jack walker, membership registration by individual clubs with the organizations, entrance fees to the sporting facilities and the government sponsorship comes from the tax collected in the country. These funds are used to run and manage the all the sporting activities in the country (the famed football giveaway, 2010). The government funds sports either directly or indirectly depending on the needs to be addressed. Direct funding of sporting activity by the government is through the provision of sporting facilities while indirect funding is realized through the government’s funding the organizations that are bestowed with the mandate of running and developing sports activities in UK. International and UK sports Development a) Comparison On a communal basis, the situation in the UK sports governance and development bears some similarity with the international sports organizations in terms of aims and expectations as follows: Sports are promoted among both the youths and adults as it brings them together and, as a result promoting unity and peaceful coexistence in the society. Sporting has also promoted socialization among individuals from different parts of the world as they come together and participate in a common sporting event. Sports have been promoted in both situations as they are viewed as activities that help youths to become responsible individuals by avoiding criminal activities and instead get carried out by sports. In both cases the sources of finance comes from donations of well-wishers, charitable organizations. The UK governments sponsor the sporting activities in the country just as the member state governments contribute towards the international sports organizations that run and develop sports internationally. Sports are also aimed at eliminating barriers among people of different races, religion and political ideologies. b) Contrasts Although it has been clearly shown that both the UK and the international organizations promote the growth, development and governance of sports, there are some differences in terms of the procedure of the entire process and the level/ coverage and the motive of promoting the activity. The international organizations focus most on sports as a tool for national development. They use sports to bring people together to be able to pass across crucial information to the people aimed at developing the nation. The national development can be in the form of eradicating poverty, improving health care and other humanitarian services. On the other hand, sports in the UK have a different motive. It is mainly promoted towards the realization of its development in the country. This is because it has been viewed to provide employment to the youths and other individual carrying out profession jobs like health officers. Sports governance in Australia, South Africa and Germany Just as, discussed above, sports situation in these three countries resemble that found in the UK and closely related with the international scenario. There are established organizations for managing and governing sports in these countries who receive their funding from donors, well-wishers and government. In south Africa, sports is considered as a national religion as it brings people together (Africa.info, 2013). In Germany, sports have gained fame as its used to keep people active and as a source of income to the participant (Germany, 2013). Australia also has good sports set up and is famously known in the world as one of the hard sports competitor. The sporting activities include soccer, Golf, cricket, Rugby etc. (Yesaustralia, 2007). Conclusion It is clearly shown that sports in the world are governed by organizations that are funded through donations from well-wishers, governments and non-governmental organizations. These organizations have got different reasons for governing sports which ranges from promoting unity among nations, promoting health status of people like in case of UNICEF, promoting peace among people and also uplifting the living standards of the people. Sports have also provided employment to the people who actively participate in it and provide an alternative way of spending leisure time among the spectators. Works Cited Read More