Samoa Sport for Development Program

The Samoa Sport for Development Program’s goal is ‘increased participation of village communities in regular, quality sport and physical activities run by qualified village-based facilitators’.

The program aims to assist in:

• increasing the capacity of people from participating villages to manage sport and physical activity programs (including sport administration, planning, event/competition management, monitoring and evaluation)
• increasing the capacity of local facilitators to deliver regular, quality and inclusive sport and physical activity sessions.

The potential social development outcomes are:

• improved health of participants
• increased sport skills of young people and women
• reduced social problems
• improved village cohesion.

Structure

The Samoa Sport for Development Program has commenced in two pilot villages on Upolu, Samoa’s main island. Following the pilot it will be introduced into another two villages on Upolu, and two on Savai'i, Samoa’s second island. The program is designed to ultimately be run in up to 30 villages across Samoa.

Villages will choose the competitive and recreational sport activities run in their communities and there will be opportunities to expand the range of activities during the course of the program.

Activities could include:

• popular sports for young people such as rugby, netball, volleyball and football (soccer)
• low impact physical activities for elderly community members such as walking, swimming, aerobics, jazzercise, stretching and dancing
• junior sport programs such as Fiafia Sports and traditional Samoan games for children.

Partners

The Samoa Sport for Development Program steering committee is made up of representatives from the:

• Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture
• Samoan Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development
• Samoan Ministry of Health.

Participation

The program is targeted at rural communities and encourages all members of villages to participate. Sport development officers work with a village sport committee to make sure the program includes vulnerable groups such as young people, women, children and mature aged people. It will be coordinated by members of each village community, who will receive:

• access to formal training leading to official qualifications
• opportunities to improve coaching, officiating and sports administration skills
• opportunities for active engagement in their village community and respect from its members.

Implementation

The Samoa Sport for Development Program is managed by the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture with a team of sport development officers engaged to help communities deliver the program in both Upolu and Savai'i. At different stages of the program, other ministries and sports federations will be responsible for supporting the communities to deliver specific components.

‘This program is important in Samoa. There are some villages that have problems, but we have seen that sport can bring people together ... In the villages, the traditional Samoan structures are in place. As long as we respect that, and keep the village council informed, the program will be successful.

‘This is an important partnership between the Australian and Samoan governments, to develop grassroots sport in our villages.’
Seumanatafa Epati — Program Manager, Samoa Sport for Development Program