The new version of the International Platform on Sport & Development a website dedicated entirely to the field of Sport & Development, turned one year old on 1 July 2009. After an elaborate and detailed strategy process in which the concept, governance structure and development of the website was initiated, the fourth version of the Platform was launched. The idea for the website sportanddev.org was initiated at the first Magglingen conference on Sport & Development in 2003 in which the need for an online platform to share information and resources on Sport & Development was voiced.

What’s been achieved?

Today, the Platform has approximately 400 visitors per day and has over 500 registered users from Romania to Rwanda, from Chile to Cambodia…134 organisations and 54 projects from all over the world have been added to the online database by Platform users.

Almost 150 Sport & Development documents and publications have been added to the Platform in the past year, including manuals, research reports, evaluation reports, working papers and policy documents. All documents can be downloaded from the Platform (for free).

In the past year, four major events have received extensive coverage on the Platform:

• the Sport in Post-Disaster Intervention seminar in Rheinsberg (Germany);
• the World Social Forum 2009 in Bélem (Brazil);
• the Forum on Productive Youth Development through Sport in Nairobi (Kenya); and
• the Beyond Sport Summit in London (UK).

Participants and non-participants at these events were able to engage in the debates, comment on news articles and continue discussions through the Platform.

What’s next?

We hope next year will be as exciting and charged as this year has been. We look forward to working closer with our Steering Board and key stakeholders to continue to deliver a quality website that reflects the great work, diversity and enthusiasm in the field of Sport & Development.

Platform on Sport & Development