Brook Sports Consulting have been providing technical assistance to a number of high profile development agencies and sport bodies in recent months in respect of sport for development and peace programmes.
We were pleased to provide consulting services to UNESCO and the FIFA Foundation in respect of the life skills content of the FIFA Football for Schools App. With most life skills programmes in football focused on adolescents and young adults there is a lack of programmes designed to meet the life skills requirements of primary school aged children. This led to the development of a life skills package that focuses on the personal, social, health and safety skills of this younger age group. The package uses football activities to create discussions around a range of issues such as self-awareness, collaboration, citizenship, physical and mental health, and bullying. Coaches/school teachers facilitating conversations at the end of the training that allow children to reflect on what learned through the football activity that can apply in their wider lives.
You can read about the FIFA Football for Schools programme here which hopes to reach some 700m children around the world.
We were also pleased to be asked to provide technical assistance to the Commonwealth Secretariat in respect of their cricket based sport for development and peace programme “Peace at the Crease”.
Cricket is a sport with immense popularity and cultural significance in member countries of the Commonwealth. The Peace at the Crease initiative aims to demonstrate the impact and change that can be affected when sport-based policy and strategy is intentionally positioned to contribute positively to sustainable development, health and building peaceful and just societies.
Brook Sport Consulting have been helping the Commonwealth Secretariat to develop a quality assurance and delivery manual for the Peace at the Crease Initiative. Read more here.
We are passionate about the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in sport so were delighted to be asked by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to conduct a Baseline Survey on Safeguarding for sport and sport for development in Kenya.
This involved us in travelling to the UNHCR refugee camp in Kakuma and in consulting with a range of sport, sport for development, education and legal stakeholders in Nairobi.
There are approximately 191,500 refugees living in Turkana West close to the border with South Sudan alongside the host population of 320,000. Children are the largest population group with 111,749 aged 17 years and under, representing almost 58.3% percent of the entire refugee population living in the Kakuma and Kalobeyei camps. Women and girls constitute 46.9 percent of the refugee population.
In an effort to curb the violence and promote peaceful co-existence among refugees and host communities in Turkana West, the UNHCR and its partners decided to present a new model for sports that encapsulated multi-national and multi-ethnic teams that would foster a stronger bond among different refugee and host community members. The new model promotes behaviour change among girls, boys, young men and women and ‘Do No Harm’ through a number of key activities; Kakuma Premier League, Kakuma United FC, and the management of the Sports Field.
Kakuma United FC is the first football club in Kakuma to be registered by the Football Kenya Federation as part of the Division 2 Western Zone League. Kakuma United is uniquely composed of players from seven different nationalities, drawn from the Kakuma refugee camp, the nearby Kalobeyei settlement and Kenyans from the local host community.
Sixteen teams play in the Kakuma Premier League and 10 female football teams playing in the ‘Divas League’. Teams playing in the league are required to have a mix of players who are both refugees from different countries and from the host community.
Back in Nairobi we met with sports and sport for development and peace organisations. Sport for development and peace organisations are ahead of the curve when it comes to having safeguarding policies and implement safeguarding measures. Sport has yet to properly embrace safeguarding but it is clear that the infrastructure required to implement robust policies and measures exists and there is no reason that Kenya cannot expedite the implementation of safeguarding in sport.
Frankline Olukohe (GIZ S4DA), George Nange (MYSA), Norman Brook (Brook Sport Consulting) and Andrew Oloo (GIZ S4DA) meet in Mathare, Nairobi to discuss safeguarding in sport.
Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in sport is something that we are passionate about. So we were delighted to be selected by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to conduct a Baseline Survey on Safeguarding in sports and sport for development in Kenya
BROOK SPORT CONSULTING 
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