Norwegian Sports Aid: Exploring the Norwegian ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ Discourse

Abstract

This article focuses on Norwegian ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ (SDP) aid to the Global South and how it works within the Norwegian development aid system. The analysis shows that the two dominant strategies of Norwegian NGOs concerned with SDP can be viewed from two different standpoints. The first considers NGOs’ role to be that of a service provider of sport and Norwegian official development aid objectives. The second maintains that a more transformative role is needed by addressing structural causes of inequality of the provision of sport in poor communities. It is argued that this duality in the role of NGOs in Norwegian SDP reflects distinctive national characteristics shaped by complex domestic processes and traditions that have formed the different NGO's conceptual understanding of SDP. This stands in contrast to the mainstream literature that has typically studied Northern NGOs concerned with SDP and their strategies as part of an international social movement. The article calls for a research agenda that seeks to understand SDP NGO's policy models and strategies in the context of distinct national characteristics and traditions in individual donor countries in the Global North.

Keywords:

• Sport for Development and Peace
• NGOs
• Norwegian development aid system
• donor
• ‘Big-D’ development
• ‘Little-d’ development

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express thanks to Dr Knut Nustad and Professor Matti Goksøyr for their valuable inputs and contributions in the process of writing this article. The research was conducted at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

Notes on contributor

Anders Hasselgård holds a PhD studentship within Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS), Department of Cultural and Social Studies.

Notes

¹The boundaries are, however, fluid. Depending on the emphasis and intensity of the development or sport dimension, projects may shift to the left or right on the continuum.

²I have five years of experience cooperating with several Norwegian organizations working with SDP through managing the practical study programme ‘Sport, culture and development cooperation’ at the Norwegian School of Sport Science (NSSS) (aimed at providing young Norwegian students with experience in voluntary sports-related work in the Global South).

³See Hasselgård and Straume (2014) for further discussions on this point regarding NIF's SDP to Zimbabwe.

⁴The French-registered NGO Diambars is represented in Norway through a Norwegian executive committee which works to spread information about the project, fundraising and help transfer players to Norwegian premier league clubs.

⁵VIRKE represents over 17,000 businesses in Norway.

⁶Right to Play Norway is an exception. This organization uses sport celebrities as project ambassadors.