A collection of resources to help you measure the success of your work or find out about the impact of sport in projects with refugees.

Monitoring and evaluation enable organisations to assess whether initiatives deliver meaningful change that meets the needs of refugees. Key benefits of monitoring and evaluation for sport initiatives include: 

  • Assessing impact: Evaluate if programmes promote well-being, social integration, and a sense of belonging, using data and feedback from participants.
  • Adapting projects: Identify and adjust activities to better suit the needs and interests of refugee participants, ensuring cultural sensitivity and inclusivity.
  • Allocating resources: Determine where resources are most effective and make informed decisions to maximise impact.
  • Demonstrating accountability: Provide evidence to stakeholders about programme outcomes and responsible resource use.
  • Fostering learning: Share best practices and lessons to improve sport initiatives globally and build an evidence base for effective interventions.
  • Ensuring sustainability: Use evaluation data to plan long-term strategies, foster community ownership, and strengthen partnerships.

Impact measurement resources for sport for refugee projects

Below is a selection of resources designed to assist you in monitoring and evaluating the impact of your initiative, as well as some key examples of research papers on the topic of sport and refugees.

  • Football and Refugees: Addressing key challenges
    A collection of good practices shared by UEFA member associations. This guide shows how football can have an impact in lessening difficulties that have emerged because of recent displacement crises in Europe.
  • Mapping of good practices relating to social inclusion of migrants through sport
    This study, initiated by the European Commission, provides an analytical overview of the types of sports-related projects and interventions used to support the social inclusion of migrants and identifies best practices in their design, implementation, and measurement.
  • Sport & Peace: Mapping the Field
    Supported by a partnership between Generations For Peace and the Georgetown University Master of Arts Programme in Conflict Resolution, this report highlights findings from a one-year international mapping project to identify promising practices in the design, implementation, and evaluation of sport for peace programmes.
  • Sports as a tool for refugee empowerment
    The study explores the use of sport as a psychosocial intervention. It looks at the ways in which sports programs enhance the quality of life and improve the psychosocial development of refugees, particularly youth.
  • Sport, Refugees, and Forced Migration: A Critical Review of the Literature
    This literature review offers an integrative, critical review of scientific literature on the topic of sports, refugees, and forced migration. It analyses academic literature published in this domain derived from fourteen languages between 1996 and 2019.
  • The Roles of Sport and Education in the Social Inclusion of Asylum Seekers and Refugees
    This project, part of a policy initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, seeks to identify the ways in which sport has been used for the social inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees in UK contexts.
  • Understanding Community-Based Protection
    Drawing on documents, interviews with practitioners, and field visits, this document sets out key lessons that have emerged in recent years during the delivery of Community-Based Protection. It aims to help UNHCR staff and partners integrate community-based approaches to protection in their humanitarian work.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit
  • This section aims to provide an introduction to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) together with suggested further reading, tools and guidance. The section focuses mainly on monitoring and evaluation in the development context, and draws from experience and resources generated by other sectors where this can be applied to sport and development.
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  • Monitoring and Evaluation in policy
  • An overview of the key principles for measuring the impact of sport and development policies, including guidance relevant to practitioners.