Sport as propeller of new forms of co-governance

After so many discussions on the relevance of sports for positive social change, there are no more doubts on its unifying potential, its capacity to bring people together and enable the conditions for more vibrant communities to thrive.

Yet, there might be more work to be done in order to generate more evidence on how sports can truly strengthen social cohesion especially in societies marked by civil unrest, wars and continuous cycles of crimes.

Imagine for example that in two or three years from now, Haiti will be still a scarred society but definitely will be in a much better place than where it is nowadays.

With criminal gangs controlling the economy and vast parts of the majority of urban areas, the country is very closed to reach the threshold of a failed state.

This rosy scenario, considering what’s occurring at the moment in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, would require considerable social and economic interventions on the part of the international community.

Possibly the same mistakes made in the past, leading to aid dependency (without forgetting a devastating cholera epidemic caused by UN Blue Helmets) will be avoided and the process of national reconciliation and renewal will be truly led the citizens of Haiti.

Working together with whatever pieces of local government in place and surely a still weak central administration, the local civil society could be in a position to enhance the nation and heal the innumerable wounds and trauma experienced by the people.

Good governance is going to be paramount especially a type of it that truly empowers and gives agency and voice to the people well beyond the usually ineffective and often rigged ballot box.

I am talking about experimenting forms of deliberative democracy at local levels where citizens are at minimum consulted by public officials and, in the best cases, are enabled to take decisions.

Shifting from traditional liberal democracy to the deliberative formula can be daunting and challenging and it would require a massive effort of educating the citizens about their new granted powers.

Could in such scenario sports play a role in creating the necessary awareness and knowledge about the nuances of deliberative democracy practices?

In a bottom line and here I am simplifying a lot, could sports, especially at grassroots levels, facilitate the establishment of localized formal citizens’ forums that with a certain degree of latitude, will work autonomously along the local elected governments and potentially, in certain cases, could even replacing them because of their dysfunctions and corruption?

Sports events could bring people together and seizing the opportunity of such gatherings, local activists, possibly supported by athletes themselves encouraged to promote civic engagement, could directly provide people with simple but key messages about their new political rights.

Such messaging could be then followed up by a massive awareness programs and trainings at grassroots levels.

Reflecting on this unique capacity to bring people together, sports events, especially in the forms of those pursuing the common good, normally referred as sports for peace and development, could do much more than simply be the vector for awareness creation on grassroots level deliberative democracy.

It can be the platform first to heal a convalescing nation through a process of nation building because this is what a very fragile nation like Haiti has to necessarily undergo if, when violence and crimes are subdued, wants to sustainably turn page.

Indeed sports initiatives, especially those involving youths and those directly impacted by the violence, could truly bring people together and give them a chance to reconcile.

Certainly, we cannot expect that sports itself is going to be a panacea and solve all the ills afflicting a nation like Haiti but with confidence, policy makers should recognize that it can do its bits to support the healing process of a “damaged” nation.

In doing so they would certainly help re-thinking the way governments work in the 21 st century, basically contributing to implement what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls the “New Social Contract”.

If Guterres’s focus has been finding new ways to tackle inequality, then we should recognize that such new agreement should also focused on governance and way people are involved in it, itself a prerequisite to fight poverty and social exclusion.

It is here where sports can help not only making people conscious of having a real chance of exercising stronger agency through deliberative practices but it can become the tool to really help people re-imagine the way the relationships between them and the government work out.

In this way, sports could be used to harness people imagination about their future but also can help them think about how to solve the very real and practical problems they face on day-to-day basis.

In development jargon and, perhaps, in more politically speaking “neutral” terminology, this could b be referred as “SDGs localization”, a process that considers the SDGs as a tool for local change.

In more practical terms, let’s envision the following scenarios unfolding in a fragile and volatile nation coming out from a difficult internal period.

Imagine a grassroots level sports event attracting local people. For example, though, extended time breaks, social facilitators could address the spectators by forming
smaller groups and interact with them on the way forward to rethink and re-imagine their communities.

Imagine a sports-based leadership and democracy program where young people have the possibility to work on improving their beloved sports’ skills but also learn about leadership and bottom-up forms of co-governance where the citizens have a voice and a real decision making.

These could be hybrid labs where sports is used to build leadership competences while offering an opportunity for youths from different backgrounds to work as grassroots level policy makers.

They will practice their sports but also undertake comprehensive exercise and lectures on civic engagement, volunteerism, that, in all its varieties according to the latest UNV facilitated categorization, can also include also activism, campaigning and political participation.

Imagine rebuilding Haiti or any other nation emerging from a war or a complex civilian turmoil, leveraging the unifying power of sports to help these societies move ahead and start again.

Using sports as a platform to promote more direct and more engaging forms of bottom up democratic practices might sound almost ludicrous and certainly naïve at first thinking.

Yet, the communities affected by violence and conflicts need neutral spaces where their members can regain trust and confidence that a better future is possible.

Moreover, let’s not take for granted that deliberative democracy is a western construct that is going to be imposed as a new form of domineering because many societies in the world have strong traditions of mutual aid and decision making by consensus.

Sports could help revamp them.

These nations, especially those coming out from violence, need bridges where their people, especially youths, can reconnect, heal and work together.

Sports can be one of these bridges. Certainly, we need imagination, a foresighted vision and determination to ensure that sports can be valued by experts and key policy makers as a true tool of a new grassroots level decision making.

Let’s not shy away from recognizing sports as one of the essential tools to help rebuilding a broken society and ensure that democracy truly works for the people. Even if no one right now in Port-au-Prince might be interested in sports, perhaps it is better reflect and strategize on how sports can truly help build a better Haiti tomorrow.

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Simone is the co-founder of ENGAGE and co-convenor of The Good Leadership, Good for You & Good for the Society.