Drafted Dissertation Work
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Solent Electronic Archive North-South partnerships and power relations in Sport for Development. The case of Mathare Youth Sports Association Kurt Wachter A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Southampton Solent University for the degree of Master of Arts Southampton Solent University Faculty of Business, Sport and Enterprise MA Sport and Development January 2014 Abstract Sport is currently considered a legitimate means to progress global health, education, development and peace (UN 2006). However, upon close examination, Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) still follows the traditional trajectory of international development which predominantly involves the supposedly apolitical transposition of resources from donors (Global North) to implementers (Global South)1 (Briggs 2008). These include the less tangible resources that include Global Northern knowledge, ideologies and practices which are transposed in a unidirectional pattern from the North to the South. Undoubtedly, the transposing of the less tangible resources listed above consequently normalizes the legitimate ways of approaching and doing development (Sidaway 2008). The SDP movement has taken an uncritical posture of the ideological underpinnings of SDP programmes and approaches. This disparity could be seen as an extended notion of a colonial discourse: that truth about development is constructed in the Global North and implemented in Global South. Recent postcolonial studies have called for a critical analysis of the “colonizing tendencies” within the SDP movement because certain dominant Western conceptualisations and discourses would legitimize Northern-driven hegemonic practices (Darnell 2011: 183). In the SDP sector the partnership approach “has become ubiquitous as a modus operandi” (Lindsey 2011: 517). While partnership discourse puts emphasis on reversing power relations in the development aid chain, asymmetric donor-recipient relationships continue to exist in SDP. The aim of this dissertation was to contribute to a critical understanding of power relations in the sport for development sector and to explore alternative development and SDP partnership perspectives by investigating the case of the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) in Kenya. This study focused on the relationships between MYSA, a Southern key player and pioneer in the global Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) movement, and their donors in the Global North. A postcolonial and actor-oriented approach of analysis was applied to understand North-South power relations and alternative development perspectives. The dissertation employed an extensive literature review, field work, and interviews conducted with MYSA members and vested interests in the MYSA saga to draw attention to some crucial questions around the legitimacy of SDP as promoter of development and the Millennium Development Goal “global partnerships”. The study is qualitative in nature and was conducted by the principles of participatory action research. The study looked look in-depth at the case of MYSA with a focus on the narratives which evolved around the current conflict with the long-standing international partner Strømme Foundation. It explored different perspectives and meanings attributed to MYSA and its development model within a range of vested interests, both in the Global South and North. 1 The use of the categories of North/South or Third World/First World in the development literature are linked to ideological and geographical binaries which are highly controversial (Hayhurst et al. 2011). This study uses the terminology of “Global South” and “Global North” (Kidd / Donnelly 2007). According to Mwaanga (2012: 12) the term Global South “denotes a community of people at different geographical locations who experience a common set of problems – problems which emanate, by and large, from deep inequities of power within and between nations”. Other critical writers make similar distinction based on power and not on geography, for instance ‘Two-Thirds World’ or ‘majority world’ (to refer to the Global South) and ‘One-Third World’ or ‘minority world’ (to refer to the Global North) (Hayhurst et al. 2011; Kidd / Donnelly 2007) 2 A whistle blower report in 2011 has exposed a number of allegations against MYSA, ranging from misappropriation of funds, corruption, sexual harassment, and abuse of girls and young women (Strømme 2012). These serious allegations by the Strømme Foundation have evoked much debate in the SDP field. Moreover, the withdrawal of the main donor caused a severe crisis for the Southern NGO and a dramatic cut back of their sport programmes targeting youth in the slums in the Nairobi Eastlands. The study has examined discourses on development and partnership conflicts. The central themes which emerged in data analysis, were (1) competing social constructions of MYSA (before and after the conflict), (2) MYSA self-identity, (3) meanings of development, (4) negotiating and contesting partnerships, and (4) visions of reform. 3 Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to the many who have contributed in one way or the other to the completion of this academic project. In particular I want to thank the MYSA staff and volunteers in Nairobi for their active support of the research and sharing of experience and knowledge. Special thanks go to Peter Ndolo for looking after me during my stay in Komarok. I would also like to thank all those who have participated in the interviews and informal talks for their willingness to share their stories in an open and critical way. Many special thanks to Margareth Buchschwenter, Bella Bello Bitugu, my course mates at Solent and the FairPlay team in Vienna who were always there to encourage and support me in all respects. I would like to thank my supervisor Oscar Mwaanga for providing inspiration and support. This dissertation is dedicated to my late father, Egon Wachter. 4 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgement 4 Table of Contents 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Chapter 1: Introduction: Context and Relevance of Topic 7 1.1. Sport for Development and Peace: A contested arena about development 7 1.2. Partnership and power relations between donors and NGOs 8 1.3. The case of MYSA and its relevance for Sport for Development 10 1.4. Personal motivation behind the topic 12 1.5. Aims, Relevance and Scope of the Study 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review 16 2.1. Introduction 16 2.2. Critique of dominant perspectives in Sport for Development 16 2.3. Theoretical Frameworks of Power: Discourse and Postcolonialism 19 2.4. People-centred Perspectives on Power: Actor-orientation and Empowerment 25 2.5. Postcolonial perspective on Sport in Africa: Football as a colonial agent for discipline 28 2.6. The NGO phenomenon and a new development paradigm within the SDP field 30 2.7. The contested concept of partnership and (Dis-)Empowerment in SDP 33 2.8. The construction of MYSA and ‘Celebratory’ SDP scholarship 37 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 39 3.2. Critique of the Northern dominance in SDP research 40 3.3. Methodological Position: Actor perspective and Participatory Action Research 41 3.4. Research Methods and Data Collection 44 3.5. Conclusion 52 Chapter 4: Research Findings and Discussion 4.1. Introduction 53 4.2. Contextualisation: The crisis’ impact 53 4.3. External Constructions of MYSA: From “donor darling” to a “bunch of molesters” 56 4.4. Constructing of MYSA Self-Identity: Rebranding the slum and social bonding 61 4.5. Meanings of Development 66 4.6. Negotiating and Contesting Partnerships: Mutual trust vs. hypocrisy 71 4.7. Visions of Reform: Local autonomy vs. International embeddedness 76 4.8. Methodological Limitations and Conclusion 81 Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendations 82 5.1. Introduction 82 5.2. An actor-oriented Southern perspective on SDP 82 5.3. An elaborated concept of power in SDP 83 5.4. A postcolonial perspective on SDP partnerships 83 5.5. Human Rights on the SDP agenda 84 5.6. Alternative, non-colonial SDP models 85 Appendices 86 Appendix A: List of Interviews 86 Appendix B: In-depth Interview Guide 87 Appendix C: Informed Consent Form 90 Appendix D: List of Events of MYSA – Strømme Foundation Conflict 92 Appendix E: The Standard Newspaper Article on Allegations 94 Appendix F: Table on Typical Sport and Development aid chain & MYSA actors 95 Appendix G: Ethics Form 96 Bibliography 97 Tables Table 1.: Selected Sociological Theories on Power Table 2.: Sampling Clusters of MYSA stakeholders with vested interests 5 List of Abbreviations CBO - Community-based Organisation DAC - Development Assistance Committee DTS - Development Through Sport FARE- Football Against Racism in Europe FIFA - Fédération Internationale de Football Association FKF - Football Kenya Federation GIZ – Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for Intern. Cooperation) ILO – International Labour Organization INEX-SDA - INEX - Association for Voluntary Activities (Czech Republic) IYSPE - International Year for Sport and Physical Education KNVB - Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond (Dutch Football Association) MUFC – Mathare United Football Club MDG – Millennium Development Goal MYSA – Mathare Youth Sports Association NGO – Non-Governmental Organisation NIF - Norwegian Olympic Committee Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Platform - International Platform on Sport