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Sunday 27 August 2006
Jamaica needs to decide on a more creative way to invest in sport and make it a business, to maintain and even improve the status of that sector. Mechanisms MUST be put in place to ensure that sport gets the support necessary for teams to compete in regional and international competitions and to create opportunities for growth and development of Jamaica’s economy.
In getting the best value for sport Jamaica MUST create a National Sport Strategy: Driving Jamaica’s Economy to reduce the inequities associated with gender, age and social class. It must also address the issue of finding the funding necessary to maintain the programmes which aim to reduce the inequities mentioned earlier.
The strategy should therefore speak to:
- improving quality of life
- multi-faceted approach to complex social issues
- voluntarism and active citizenship
- building and maintaining sporting infrastructure
- attracting major events to Jamaica
- economic benefits
Jamaica has some aspects of a policy in place. There is the Institute of Sport (INSPORT), the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) and CHASE to help with the funding aspect, but none of them has as their core overall development of the sector. The sector therefore needs to be rationalized for efficiency.
Our National Industrial Policy (NIP) says Government is to take the lead role, however the social partners (private sector) have a role to play. “They (the private sector) are the main engine of growth. They must exercise the entrepreneurial dynamism needed to seize emerging economic opportunities for long term productive investment…make the adjustments necessary to cope with international competitiveness.”
Big business
Sport is big business and the economic impact of sport has long been assessed and recognised since the mid 1980s. Recently reports and studies have been done to show the benefits of sport on several economies by stimulating inward investment and economic regeneration in worldwide communities.
Some examples to look at include Birmingham and Manchester, England; Atlanta, Georgia and Sydney, Australia. These are examples of large communities which have committed to investing in sport and recreation, improving the social fabric of its community and keeping the community attractive for investors and tourists.
Should sport have its own ministry? Or should sport be privatized? Both are risky, however, if it remains as is in the current system of government, there must be better planning. The government can make sport an independent sector with a proper team of experts including:
· a planner (to update policy to ensure plans remain current),
· a marketer,
· a financier (to seek the sponsorship),
· a nutritionist,
· and a community development officer
To this group must be added someone from the academia to create the balance.
According to Ms. Hume Johnson, PhD Candidate - Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato, New Zealand, “Jamaica manages sport in episodes and high points, not sustained action.” Hence the problems we face as a sporting nation.
Disheartening headlines
Too many times when some national sporting teams are to travel to the Caribbean and around the world to compete for Jamaica we hear and see headlines such as…”KFC to the rescue”; “Team may not make