Sport and sustainable development in Botswana: towards policy coherence
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Sport and sustainable development in Botswana: towards policy coherence Louis Moustakas1 · Arda Alan Işık1 Received: 15 October 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020 OPEN
Abstract There are increasing connections made between sport and sustainable development, both internationally and within Botswana’s national policies. However, these policy documents are vague and overly broad. There is no focus on where or how sport can be positioned to support sustainable development within Botswana’s unique national context. Using policy coherence as a theoretical framework, the goal of this paper is to analyse the current policy as well as propose national policy objectives and instruments to support sport’s contribution to sustainable development in Botswana. This paper relies on findings generated through semi-structured qualitative interviews, policy documents and academic literature. We propose that sport should be re-oriented to achieve objectives related to economic development, education, and health. Numerous concrete policy instruments are likewise suggested, including investing in small-scale sport infrastructure, public awareness campaigns and better sport educator training. Ultimately, these instruments enhance the coherence of the overall policy and create synergies by addressing multiple overarching objectives simultaneously. Keywords Sport · Sustainable development · Policy coherence · Botswana · Southern africa
1 Intoduction Both at the national and international levels, there has been growing recognition of the potential for sport to contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indeed, there is increasing agreement on the areas where sport can contribute to sustainable development goals at the global level [1]. However, most work related to policy, sport and the SDGs has primarily been focused on international organisations. Though some efforts have begun to address policy coherence in sport and how sport can support national-level sustainable development objectives [2–4], national-level policies are often underdeveloped and under-researched. This is the case within Botswana. Numerous policy documents, including the National Sport Policy, National Youth Policy, and National Development Plans acknowledge the potential of sport to contribute to a wide range of developmental goals [5–7]. Most notably, sport is included in Botswana’s Vision 2036 agenda. Vision 2036 is a broad, cross-cutting agenda that aims to transform Botswana from an upper-middle-income to a high-income country. Within this agenda, four key pillars—sustainable economic development, human and social development, sustainable environment, as well as governance, peace and security—are included [8]. Under each pillar, numerous sub-areas are outlined, and sport is
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s43621-020-00005-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Louis Moustakas, l.moustakas@dshs‑koeln.de | 1Institute for European Sport
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