Our Approach
ChildFund Sport for Development understands that sport alone does not automatically translate to positive development outcomes and is committed to partnering to design and deliver interventions that combine quality sport opportunities with clear and intentional development outcomes.
Our work is framed in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) – the development of social and emotional values, attitudes, competencies, knowledge, and skills that are essential for learning, being effective, well-being, and success in life.
Our work focuses on 5 sets of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that enable children to learn, manage emotions, achieve positive goals, show empathy for others, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions:
Self-Awareness
The ability to understand one’s emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behaviour across contexts.
Self-Management
The ability to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviours in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations.
Responsible Decision-Making
The ability to make constructive choices about personal behaviour and social interactions that consider consequence and outcome.
Relationship Skills
The ability to establish and maintain healthy relationships and to effectively navigate diverse social settings.
Social Awareness
The ability to understand the perspectives of and empathise with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts.
In addition, our work is also framed around specific content to tackle social challenges such as: gender equality, planning for the future, being healthy, feeling safe and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Commitments
- We use sport as a tool to promote inclusion for all.
- We adhere to the highest level of safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults at all times.
- We promote gender transformation by moving beyond participation and individual self-improvement to transforming the power dynamics and structures that serve to reinforce gender injustice.
- We build structured, regular and curriculum-based interventions that articulate and measure intended development outcomes.
- We involve young, community-based leaders in the design, implementation and review of activities.
- We build partnerships with sporting organisations to benefit from their sports expertise and to strengthen existing sports ecosystems.
- We establish clear, ongoing monitoring and evaluation protocols to support learning and to measure impact. This evidence guides our decision making.