How GIZ gets young people moving

In short, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) trains children, young people, coaches and social workers in the Sport for Development (S4D) approach, advises stakeholders in youth, sport and education policy, develops sports curricula and coach licences, designs programmes and produces training manuals. GIZ has set up the Global S4D Community, an open membership platform that combines an online social intranet with offline learning and knowledge-sharing activities. Access is free and open to experts from all sectors.

To empower youth, GIZ’s S4D programmes work with government agencies, civil-society organisations and the global sports industry. One of these collaborations focuses on training young women from various partner countries who aspire to or already hold leadership positions in the sports sector, particularly in football. In cooperation with the German Football Association (DFB), GIZ’s Sport for Development runs the “Future Leaders in Football” programme, which offers young people training in management, leadership and communication. 

Given the prevailing male dominance in leadership positions within sports organisations, the programme empowers (future) female leaders and promotes the equality and visibility of women in these organisations. Consequently, this initiative provides a supportive environment for discussing gender-specific power dynamics and thus contributes to positive change in local sports structures and communities in GIZ’s partner countries. The programme has so far reached future leaders from 30 countries around the globe.

S4D also uses existing structures and supports grassroots organisations. The recently launched pan-African network “Equal Play Effect Africa” aims to strengthen such organisations by expanding their influence from the local to the regional, national and continental level. It aims to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing between these organisations. During the programme, the organisations will develop their own gender action plans and identify how best to embed gender equality on the pitch for youth participants, on the sidelines for coaches and in organisational governance, design and policy.

S4D creates an innovative framework in which young people take on leadership roles and work for social change.

Through the Youth Ambassadors Programme in Latin America, Tunisia, Pakistan and the Western Balkans, young leaders become experts in S4D. During the two-year training programme, they develop and implement their own sport-oriented initiatives that address key development areas such as gender equality, social cohesion and employability. Through the Global S4D Community platform, they can learn from each other’s experiences. 

Link
Sport for Development:
https://community.sport-for-development.com/p/36

Katharina Wolf is Junior Communications Specialist at GIZ.
katharina.wolf@giz.de

Jens Elsner is Head of Program at GIZ’s “Global Program Sport for Development” (until 06/2024).
jens.elsner@giz.de