Not just a game

Simone Galimberti, co-founder of ENGAGE, advocates for more discussion and better comprehension of the impact of sport on development, especially in Nepal.

While watching a badminton match or a cricket game, only a few of us might think of the transformative impact that sports can have on people’s lives. Rooting viscerally for a team is something that can bring people together, helping for example a youth to find new friends. Most importantly, this passion can push people to practice and pursue sports.

Unfortunately, in Nepal a very small fraction of youths are practicing sports. While many follow sports, only a few of them can ‘walk the talk’ by not only watching the English Premier League games at night but also by actively kicking the ball on the ground. This is a pity because practicing sports can increase your life span, ensuring a healthy way of living.

There is certainly an urgent need to launch a national campaign to promote sports at the school level starting from kindergarten up to the higher secondary education. The recently established National Youth Council could partner with the Nepal Sports Council and the Ministry of Education to start a campaign for children and students to actively embrace sports.

Yet, if this campaign were only to promote the positive impact of sports in the future generations of this country, we would miss a very important point.

Diplomacy through sports
April 6 was designated by the UN General Assembly as the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace. The United Nations does not consider sports to be a simple public health tool to improve the living conditions of millions of persons around the world. The focus is instead on looking at sports through a much wider lens, with a new perspective that can bring peace and achieve sustainable development.

Indeed the Declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the bedrock of the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, assigns a special role to sport, acknowledging that “sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development", and recognising “the special contributions that sports can make to the empowerment of women and of young people, communities and individuals as well as health, education and social inclusion objectives.”

Only a few countries have fully understood the role that sports can play for development and peace. In terms of best practices, Australia, the outdoor nation par excellence, has a comprehensive ‘sport for development’ strategy. Very recently, the Badminton World Federation, with the support of the Australian government, launched a new initiative to promote sports among schoolchildren.

On Monday the Australian table tennis player Malissa Tapper was involved in an exhibition match in Basantapur Durbar Square where she played against Digam Singh Chemjong, an avid sport player and one of the leaders of the wheelchair basketball movement in the country.