SPORTS AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A paper presented by Mr. Magnus Rex Danquah,
Executive Chairman, RICS Consult Limited; Managing Consultant, AWD Sports Strategies Limited; and President, Ethel-Jane University College of Sports at the 1st International Ghana Physical Education & Sport Thinktank Conference, 2010 at the Alisa Hotels on Friday, 30th July, 2010


Honourable Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports;
Mr. Moderator;
Discussants;
Distinguished delegates and participants;
Ladies and Gentlemen;

It is with the greatest of humility that I stand before you this morning to offer my humble viewpoint on the topic: “Sports As An Instrument For National Development.”

In the last thirty years, I have witnessed with keen interest the global evolution of sports as a platform for talent and skill development, leisure, physical education and recreation into a vehicle for socio-economic changes amongst nations.

Thus, within the last two decades we have seen governments look set to sustain or even increase their involvement in sport, despite the ravages of recession.

What nations and governments have sought to do, in the circumstances, have been to use sport as a tool for re-engineering their economies and increase their sports infrastructure stock by continuously engage in the bidding war for the rights to host and organise various international sporting events.

The issues I will be dealing with in discussing the topic will cover the following headings:-

• Vision for sports for development;
• Economic impact assessment of sports & sports events on the economy;
• Sports as an emerging industry;
• Employment opportunities;
• Reinforcing Brand Ghana globally through sports;

• Mentorship, Streetism & Youth Development;
• Hosting & organisation of international sporting events;
• Merchandising, Franchising & Licensing;
• Sports & MDGs;
• National Football League system and national development;
• Role of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies;
• Land Use Planning & Recreation, Leisure and Sports;
• Sports Ethics & Democratic Principles; and
• Conclusion.

VISION FOR SPORTS FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Within the context of this paper, I would want to look at a vision for Sports For National Development re-configured to reflect: “To re-position sports as the embodiment of the spirit of a new Ghana, an aspiring leader in the global arena, a tool for poverty alleviation, an avenue for improving the well-being of the Ghanaian and as a vehicle for mobilization for national development and growth through greater public, private sector partnership”.

It is my understanding that this way we should be able to pursue, develop, strengthen, promote and implement inter-sectoral collaborations with both private and public institutions for greater integrated multi-disciplinary planning through interventions at the national, regional and district levels, and with improved community participation in these programmes.

This will also provide us with the opportunity to pursue the increased use of sports as a channel for various national developmental issues, including campaigns against indiscipline, diseases of public health importance and school health, girl child education, female genital mutilation, polio, cholera, malaria, and for youth empowerment as well as enhancement of talents and skills for self-development.

Furthermore, this will accommodate the interface for collaboration between sports and tourism, in using the former as a touristic endeavour in the areas of sports tours; developing sport-specific resort destinations; initiating sport theme parks; establishing specialised sport cruises; adding sports facilities and programmes to hotel & resort settings; developing sports attractions such as museums, specialised stadia and sports hall of fame; and promoting sports events as a basis for improved tourism visitations – all towards re-positioning Ghana as a preferred sports tourist destination.

I want to believe such a holistic vision should inure to our greater attainment of our national developmental goals as we fashion a new legal framework for the facilitation, promotion, development, growth and administration of a better private sector driven sports economy.

Again, all these should be situated in an enabling environment that will accelerate the consolidation of sports as an emerging industry with the requisite incentives for the creation of new career paths and professions as an integral part of overall efforts towards addressing the high rate of unemployment amongst our youth.

ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SPORTS & SPORTS EVENTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

It will be imperative that as a prelude to our fuller appreciation of the role of sports as an instrument for national development and for proper take-off, an economic impact assessment be made of sports in Ghana to not only determine its contribution to the national economy but also quantify its strategic importance for national development planning and its use as an economic indicator.

I would envisage the engagement of a reputable consultancy firm to undertake an economic and financial impact assessment of sports development and promotion in the country, including all sports-related activities. The Report should cover such impact at all levels from the district through regional to national. It should also establish the role of the District, Municipal, Metropolitan Assemblies in the provision of sporting facilities through the allocation of percentage of their shares of the District Assemblies Common Fund; and in this regard, I would want to add my voice to the call for an increase in the percentage of the national revenue allocated to the Fund from the current 7.5% to 15% so that they would be empowered to provide such services.

If this is done, we would begin to curb the rural-urban drift through the engagement of our youth in various sporting disciplines for the enhancement of their talents and skills for self-improvement and possible selection into national teams for international assignments. This will in turn provide them with the requisite funding through the payment of bonuses, appearance monies and other allowances for family and community standard of living enhancement through set up of businesses and offer of financial assistance to family members and friends.

Personally, I am not too sure about the contents of the Medium-term Strategic Plan presented by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) recently to H. E. the President of the Republic, but I have as a matter of interest appealed to the Chairman that an opportunity should be offered for a submission of a paper on the same topic: ‘Sports As An Instrument For National Development’ for incorporation of those issues that will impact directly on the work so far done by the Commission.

It is worth emphasizing that our hosting and organising the Ghana 2008 Football and Ghana 2009 Hockey Africa Cup of Nations Championships bequeathed to us as a nation significant legacies, including six all-purpose stadia – Accra, El-Wak, Kumasi, Tamale, Sekondi-Essipun and the National Hockey; fourteen training pitches – some for selected Senior Secondary Schools at the four venues; new arrival and departure lounge at the Takoradi Airport; rehabilitation of the Kumasi, Tamale and Takoradi airports’ runway to enable night flights; the construction of the Tamale UDS Hotel Project; donation of eight VW vehicles to form the bulk of the transportation pool for the new Ministry of Youth and Sports; and fourteen Toyota vehicles – 2 Land Cruisers, 5 Hilux Pickups, 3 Avensis saloon cars, and 4 Corolla saloon cars; in addition to a considerable quantity of office furniture and equipment. A greater number of computers were donated to selected senior secondary schools for their e-Library setups.

It must be said that after the Ghana 2008 Tournament, I requested the Bank of Ghana to provide an “Impact Assessment Of The Ghana 2008 CAN Tournament On Ghana’s Economy”, and whilst this was done and submitted by July 2008, I was of the opinion that it fell short of my expectations as it did not take cognizance of all the social investments made such as the four stadia and other developments, whose returns are expected to accrue over the next twenty decades or more.

Indeed, I will be dealing with some of these salient points later in my submissions.

SPORTS AS AN EMERGING INDUSTRY

Over and over again within the last two decades, we have been inundated with the talk by all manner of people including politicians and sports administrators in Africa and more especially Ghana, that sports is big business; and yet the facts on the ground do not support this claim.

Any industry, whether manufacturing, mining, energy, oil and gas, medicine and medical-care, heritage and construction, should be an organised economic activity, connected with the production or delivery of a particular product or range of products or services; or an activity that many people are involved in, especially one that has become excessively commercialized or standardized.

What we are witnessing is a thriving but unorganized sports business as an economic activity of various sub-activities and linkages from the performer to the managers to the broadcasting / events rights, merchandising and licensing to their supporting staff and services, with various professionals to boot without the requisite standardization, even as it has become excessively commercialized.

I must admit that sports as an emerging industry holds great potential of new career paths and professions, enhancing our international sports events management capabilities, broadening our new media landscape, growing new income streams through the application of ICT in all facets & at all levels of sports promotion and development to redefine and consolidate its role in national development.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

One major resultant benefit of any economic impact assessment of sports and sports events on the economy, within the context of sports as an emerging industry, will be the determination of the current levels of employment of the sector.

However, a cursory look without any empirical analysis paint a promising picture – from performers, technical personnel, managers, club owners, administrators, media, rights owners, broadcasters, stadia hawkers and concessionaires, kits manufacturers and shop owners, events owners, service providers, sports-related allied-suppliers, PE practitioners, and the sports academia as assembled here.

I could conjecture a million people employed by sports in the non-formal sector, either permanently, casual labour or as volunteers, from the community to district to regional and then finally to the national level.

We should be more than assured that if we begin to do the right things, take the rights steps, give up individual parochial interests for the greater good of us all, adopt and keep to the dictates of the industry, be more transparent in all our dealings and begin to think outside the box in all matters, we will not need the same number of years that has taken the developed states to grow our industry and catch up with global trends.

Years back, majority of our FAs across Africa could not see beyond the fact that the whole essence of qualifying to play in the FIFA World Cup was far more than a national prestige; and that it has always been a business proposition. I cannot imagine what winning the FIFA World Cup and earning more than US$50 million would do to the economy of say, Ghana?

These are the possibilities for employment opportunities that would accrue in the name of sports against the national development agenda.

For the record, hosting the 2010 World Cup created over 150,000 jobs and 15,000 volunteers against a total expenditure of US$5 billion for infrastructure, security, TV and marketing rights, constructions and services.

What we need to do is to lend ourselves to the rules of the game for the enhancement of sports as an emerging industry to be able to drive its agenda as an instrument for national development.

REINFORCING BRAND GHANA GLOBALLY THROUGH SPORTS

I am more than happy that the government has found it prudent to establish a Brand Ghana Secretariat to protect, develop and grow the GHANA brand, both locally and globally, and even more especially that its importance is buttressed by its inclusion in the membership of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

For the purposes of this paper, I would rather look only at the role of Sports in reinforcing the Ghana brand globally, especially the contributions of Football in adding value since 2006 to date.

Within this period, we saw the magnitude of the impact of the triumph of the Black Satellites at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, Egypt 2009 Championship, especially considering the manner in which the finals was played and won against Brazil with 10-men for more than 80 minutes of the game.

The value of this achievements and the premium it added in enhancing this brand can only be left for posterity to determine.

Again, the legacy of the Black Stars’ performance at the last FIFA World Cup, Germany 2006 and the fulfillment of Roger Milla’s prophesy that the world had seen nothing of the beauty and flair of the African Football Play with his country, Cameroon’s performance till the day of the arrival of the Black Stars, Ghana’s National Team - is also a critical part of the enhancement of the same branding.

Even more importantly is the real time value of the Black Stars’ achievements at the just ended South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup, where they were not only the toast of the African Continent and her people as well as people of African-descent worldwide but also earned for the nation continuous mention, supported by visuals across all the global media networks, including CNN, BBC, ESPN, Sky, Deutsche Welle and Carnal France International. Mentions that would have cost the nation in excess of US$15 million conservatively to have run an extensive global media campaign of that magnitude of exposure, most of them during prime time.

The extent of the short, medium and long-term accrued benefits that would inure to our advantage as a nation to boost our sports tourism in-flows cannot be fathomed now.

Already, requests have started coming in from USA pupils and students who are desirous of visiting Ghana during their holidays to learn how to play Ghanaian Football; there are also requests for TV and book rights for selected players of the 2010 Black Stars Team; and individual player-endorsement deals.

There is also opportunity for us to develop and grow a new line of product: HOCKEY SPORTS TOURISM, using the newly-constructed water-based turf, the National Hockey Stadium, with its 64-bed hostel facility to attract European student hockey teams to come and use our facilities during their holidays to train and alongside explore and visit our tourism sites.

I am confident that the Brand Ghana Secretariat could use the platform provided by the South Africa 2010 World Cup to input into the NDPC’s Medium-Term Strategic Plan towards taking advantage of sports as an instrument for national development to reinforce the Ghana brand globally.

MENTORSHIP, STREETISM & YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

One of the major perennial problems facing the youth of this nation, over the last two decades, has been STREETISM, the phenomenon where the unemployed youth, mostly dropouts from the junior / senior secondary schools, polytechnics and business institutes roam the streets, congregating at traffic junctions to sell all manner of consumer items from chewing gums, dog chains to dogs.

Most times, they are nuisances to motorists, peddling in items whose daily returns on investments are not enough to keep body and soul together, and sometimes too suffer greatly during floods as they sleep on pavements in the night because they cannot afford proper, decent accommodation. Their counterparts are the Kayaye, with little or no formal education and adding to the dire strait situations they find themselves in after migrating from the rural to unfamiliar urban settings.

A trace of the backgrounds of the majority of our renowned footballers and sportsmen show a similarity in their growth patterns with those of the street children, victims of streetism as described.

It is my humble opinion that we could use our successful sportsmen and women like Edith Haizel, Rose Hart, Alice Anum, Margaret Simpson, Azumah Nelson, D. K. Poison, Alberta Sackey, Vida Anim, Adwoa Bayor, Abedi Ayew Pele, Dede Ayew, Tony Baffoe, Tony Yeboah, Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan, Stephen Appiah, Samuel Osei Kuffour and Augustine Arhinful, to name but a few, as role models and mentors to give these youth HOPE to begin their dream again through sports to change their destinies.

This should be an inter-ministerial national campaign, involving the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) to identify sporting talents and nurture same for the national good and as part of the broader scheme of promoting sports as an instrument for national development.

HOSTING & ORGANISATION OF INTERNATIONAL SPORTING EVENTS

Over the last three decades, the desire to host major sports events in all corners of the globe has become stronger as cities and nations have balanced the rising costs against the benefits that such events bring. Considerations for an improved image, updated infrastructure and venues, a healthier nation, an increase in sports tourism, positive economic impact and the chance to promote one’s nation on the world stage are the reasons why nations and cities are often prepared to spend on an event.

I am of the strong conviction that as a nation, we could still continue to use sports events hosting, not only to reinforce the Ghana brand, but also:-

• To re-define our sporting aspirations and strategies as we continue to explore new frontiers for post – tournaments’ stadia management;
• To select target and select events that we can bring to Ghana as part of an overall strategy to optimize use of existing infrastructure and maximize derived incomes therefrom;
• To position sports events bidding at the centre of Ghana’s plans to promote and develop the lesser known sports, increase her sports infrastructure and bring job opportunities and economic prosperity to her citizenry and cities;
• To win event competitions and increase receipts to local tourism and businesses;
• To gain extra use for our existing stadia or venues by attracting sports competitions; and
• To influence the national development agenda through the opportunity that is offered to match Ghana’s development objectives to sports events, in order to deliver long-term benefits and legacies that include city and national branding.

To this end, I would recommend that the Ministry of Youth and Sports should, as a matter of urgency, establish a Bid Study Committee to advise on the way forward for bidding for the rights to host and organise the 2015 All – Africa Games.

The Bid Study Committee’s report should encompass outlining the physical infrastructure requirements; development plan for preparing high performance sportsmen and women for all the disciplines to be competed for during the Games; the requisite financial commitments to prepare, organise and host the Games; and fashioning out specific roles for the private sector towards a successful delivery of the Games.

It is worth reiterating that this is one event that will provide the unique platform for the nation to enhance the development and promotion of its lesser-known or secondary sports.

MERCHANDISING, FRANCHISING & LICENSING

Licensed merchandise is a massive global market worth over US$170 billion per year, with sports a major component.

For sports rights owners of all sizes, licensing and merchandising is an essential part of the business mix, both producing revenue and re-enforcing the sense of fan identity and belonging. Licensing has become one of the most powerful contemporary forms of marketing and brand extension available to brand owners today and it is being used in ever-increasingly sophisticated ways.

Sports brands face a raft of issues from accessing new and developing markets to establishing the limits of brand extension; and from maximising retail performance to fulfilling the ever-growing potential of new media.

It is an accepted fact that African, and more especially Ghanaian, football club owners cannot rely, solely, on sale of gate receipts to run such clubs with increasing administrative and operational expenditures.

It will be prudent, therefore to build football club brands that could maximize returns from merchandising and licensing to realise new revenue opportunities, as sponsors and sports – entertainment brands explore how to use licensing to take their brands to the consumer.

In our desire to promote sports as an instrument for national development, it will be critical for the sustenance of sports associations, clubs, rights owners, and sports marketing professionals to develop and manage advanced, innovative sport licensing and merchandising programmes, providing the essential hands-on knowledge to create uniquely new licensing models for maximizing the value of sports brands.

SPORTS & MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

Trying hard to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as tools for national development and growth has been the bane of many countries, including Ghana.

However, Sports can help nations meet the MDGs as sports as a platform could be used to communicate their important messages and to teach people about developmental issues, whilst its attributes such as teamwork and fair-play could also be inculcated to speed up the attainment of these goals by nations.

Indeed, sports could do all these in the following areas:-

 Sports and Health – sports have many health benefits: physical activity can help reduce the risk of death from illnesses ranging from cancer to stress and depression as physical activity is the easiest way to improve public health. You can now understand and appreciate why we have too many keep-fit clubs scattered all over the country;

 Sport and Education – education is central to all the MDGs, and sports can teach basic values and life skills most important for our youth. Sports can teach such core values like honesty, fair-play, respect, cooperation and confidence. For me, that is why I would recommend that we use sports as a tool in our desired national campaign to fight streetism in the country.

It is thus critical that sports programmes include everyone, no matter their gender, ethnicity or ability; and encouraging girls to play sports could help to break down stereotypes and help speed up gender equality – as sports are traditionally male;

 Sports and Sustainable Development – it is said that development has to meet the needs of people living today without taking away from the future generations, and sports programmes contribute to economic and social development and environmental sustainability;

 Economic Development – sports, as pointed out earlier, help economies of nations through job creations and as the emerging industry requires goods and services, contribute to economies through such areas as manufacturing, direct employment and in-flows through performers’ earnings at games / fights, appearance fees, bonuses, transfer fees and gifts as well as consequent taxation on these earnings;

 Social Development – sports facilitates social development by teaching core values and life skills: bringing people together; and improving social cohesion; whilst providing various platforms for taking on social problems as drug abuse, crime, gender equity, and child labour.

Sports also promote volunteerism as it relies on volunteers at international events as Ghana 2008 & 2009 and community-based activities; and through their recruitments, volunteers learn new skills and feel good about themselves, as volunteerism improves community participation and social well-being.

 Environmental Sustainability – sports could also be a very cost-effective but powerful tool for communicating environmental messages. It is understood that sports should be played in an environmentally sustainable manner, without harming the environment since destroying the environment reduces the health and well-being of local populations;

 Sports and Peace – admittedly, the international language of sports is able to cross cultures and bridge social, ethnic divides, and making it a powerful tool to promote peace. Sports encourage integration and social tolerance, which are necessary for lasting peace; and most especially in times of instability, sports help people feel normal, and offer some structure in an unstructured environment;

These attributes have been best exhibited in Ghana from our hosting the 1965 & 1978 Africa Cup of Nations events through to the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup, our hosting again of the 1999 African Youth Football Championship and the 2000 co-host & the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, to the Satellites’ annexation of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2009 and finally to the South Africa 2010 World Cup – when the performances of our footballers have brought the whole nation together as one people, taught us real lessons in unity of purpose, spirit of a nation and teamwork, as well as sports and peace, especially when it showcases the capacity to reduce political tensions to the minimum during such exploits and times.

And finally:

 Sports and Partnerships – since sports have the power to bring people together, it is no doubt a very powerful communication tool – sending messages of cooperation as it reaches many different people in many unique ways.

Thus, many organisations tend to work with the world of sports to teach people about key issues locally and globally by using athletes as spokespersons; dedicating sporting events to development issues; using sports to mobilize resources; and taking advantage of media coverage of sports events.

All said, permit me to add that Ghana is one of the first countries that have made the effort at integrating the concept of sport for development and sport for peace into national policies, including incorporating sports as a tool for poverty alleviation in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP); whilst the then Ministry of Education, Science and Sports were very active participants in everything to do with sport for development and peace around the world.


NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE SYSTEM & NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I have always believed that the organisation of national football leagues in any developing nations should have two core objects – producing champions to fly the flag of the respective nations on the international stage, whilst using the platform as a tool for all the inherent benefits such as national unity and cohesion, consolidate national integration of all our diverse ethnic groupings into a unitary state with common destiny.

It is for these reasons and more that I will forever continue to preach the monotonous sermon of calling for a re-think of the way we design and manage our national football leagues. No matter what name we give it – premier league – it should not continue to discriminate against the interest of some people or groupings or regions.

Thus, if we will continue to chase those national development goals we so much desire to build this nation, pursuing sports as an instrument for national development, then we should as a nations take a second look at the organisation of our national football league in order to derive more benefits than just a vehicle for declaring champions at the end of every season for participation in international competitions.

I think the time to engage in a dispassionate national discourse on the matter is now and this should be done without any acrimony.

ROLE OF DISTRICT, MUNICIPAL & METROPOLITAN ASSEMBLIES

If we are to actualize the intent of the topic: Sports as an instrument for national development, then there is the compulsive need for a clearly defined role for district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies in the promotion and development of sports, especially as it relates to the provision of infrastructure at the community level.

I know some assemblies, including the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan and Tema Municipal Assemblies, are actively engaged in sports, in some instances sponsoring teams to participate in the division one league and in others, supporting the construction of facilities.

Unfortunately, I hold the opinion that they could do better, especially as most of the assemblies are not applying the 5% share of their allocation for sports development judiciously.

If we, as a people accept that fact that sport has a critical role to play as an instrument for national development for all the reasons I have attempted to highlight in my presentation then we could all join in the crusade for an increase in the allocation of the national revenue set aside for the District Assemblies Common Fund – from the current 7.5% to 15%, with the understanding that the share for sports development and promotion will thus increase from 5% to 12%.

LAND USE PLANNING, LEISURE, RECREATION AND SPORTS

As a nation and as a people, we have failed woefully in strict application of the rule relating to land use requirements for recreation, leisure and sports, as we have always treated this subject as secondary, regarding it as a miscellaneous residual need and almost an after-thought in all situations.

We have witnessed unprecedented disregard for this rule and continued to encroach on lands set aside for recreation, leisure and sports for residential purposes much to their disadvantage.

The incidence of the extent of encroachment that denied the nation the Fadama land in Accra after it had been earmarked for the construction of an Olympic-sized stadium is a case in point. The same sad situation is repeated across the country and has drastically reduced lands originally set aside for recreation, leisure and sports.

The question of how much land should be reserved for recreation, leisure and sports uses depends mostly upon the needs of our population at the community, district, municipal and metropolitan areas.

A rule of thumb regarding municipal recreation-land use requirements recommend that towns of 10,000 or more have ten acres of recreation land for every 1,000 people and that, smaller towns could look at up to one acre for every 40 persons in areas with 1,000 residents.

We could expand these standards to require one to two acres per 1,000 people for local playgrounds and neighbourhood parks, one to two acres for playfields, five acres for larger parks, two acres for parkways, ten acres for natural area reservation or preserves at the fringe of the towns / cities, and ten or more acres for regional parks (Raleigh Barlowe: Land Resource Economic, 1978).

As we strive to consolidate sports as an instrument for national development, it will be imperative that the Town & Country Planning Department in conjunction with the various District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies live up to their terms of incorporation and start reclaiming these lands or protect whatever is left for the future generations.

SPORTS ETHICS & DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES

I was listening to Queen Latifah, the African-American movie star and artiste and she made a profound statement on CNN’s Larry King Show that her days as a basketball player made her a much better person to deal with her fame, be a better film producer learning teamwork from her sports days, and appreciating even her competitors.

This obviously made me sit up to recognize what we have all been taking for granted, the influence of the core values of sports, and the ethics of good sportsmanship on the development, growth and entrenchment of our democratic dispensation.

For the avoidance of doubt, permit me to sound like an old record that SPORTSMANSHIP connotes fair conduct, including observance of the rules of the game, rules of fair play, respect for others, and graciousness in losing.

Looking even at our sportsmen and what they, by their performances, teach us: endurance, self-belief, hardwork, competence, fair-play, teamwork, dependability, tolerance and reliability amongst others, what better way for us to build a nation, and eschew greediness – the bane of many a fallen empire.

For me, if all our leaders were good sportsmen in their youthful days, we would have solved half of our national development problems, especially in the sharing of the national cake.

CONCLUSION

I am more than persuaded that this is the time for sports to assume a right place in the scheme of things, as an instrument for national development, especially coming in the wake of the achievements of football on the international scene and its impact on the national psyche.

I am also hopeful that the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) would as a matter of priority, engage sports authorities towards incorporating the strategic role of sport in delivering the MDGs by the target year of 2015 in all position papers and strategies of the Commission.

Sport is very important because it is a driving force in creating positive change, not only in the area of development but also in the area of peace; and for today’s youth, when employment is their single most troublesome dilemma, local sports programmes can offer employment, and also reduce social exclusion among the youth.

Even more critical is the use of sports as the single most influential contributor to building leadership skills among the youth, as it empowers them, giving them a healthy alternative to potentially dangerous, harmful ways of life like streetism.

It will be important for the organisation of, say, football / sports clinics in the ethnically-charged conflict areas of the country towards either taking the sting out of the conflicts or lessening the impact of such conflicts; or better still, to integrate communities through organised sports that bond the communities together and helps them forget a bit of their differences and lessen tensions.

There can be no better way, in my opinion, to perpetuate, accelerate, and consolidate national development than leveraging the full potentials of sports as an agent for change in our current circumstances.

The time for this could not have come than now considering what the Black Stars, as a team, showed the entire continent, peoples of African-descent and Ghanaians particularly, what singleness of purpose, unity, discipline, dedication, commitment, teamwork, virtues of complementarity, and keeping one’s mind and eye always on the greater goal could do to give global hope to the under-privileged of the world.

Finally, finally, permit me to admit that I lack the finesse, expertise and even the courage to do justice to the topic that is why I opted for the easy way out with this approach, just thoughts on sports as an instrument for national development.

I have always held the view that football offers us more than just enjoying a passion that binds more as a nation during moments of international exploits of our national teams. I believe, granted the opportunity, we will begin to see and appreciate the other immense possibilities that such sports hold for driving our national development agenda.

Personally, I think it is about time for Africa and Ghana policymakers and public institutions to re-think their attitudes and mentality towards the use of sports for all the various facets of our socio-economic plans and programmes.

I want to thank you, most sincerely for listening to me and pray that you are not disappointed in any way but rather enjoyed your time listening to me.

Thank you and God bless us all.