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Where is the National Sports Policy?

Apr 20, 2010 Sports

By Rawle Welch

“Sport is as important as crime, education, the economy, health, environment, food security and a water policy.”
Those words were delivered by Brian Lewis, the Honorary Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (T&TOC) during a speech with the Trinidad and Tobago Junior Carifta contingent following their return from the Games which was held in the Cayman Islands.
Lewis stated that “for Sport to make a positive social and economic difference, the continued implementation of the National Sport Policy is as important a policy agenda as any other issue in the 2010 General Election.”
He further added that when critical national issues such as crime, health, social cohesion and diversifying the economy are being discussed, the role of Sport must be part of the solutions, ideas and perspectives. That is how Lewis viewed the significance of the development and support for Sport in his country.
Here in Guyana the absence of the long-awaited National Sports Policy seemed to have severely impacted our vision for sports. There appears to be no visible co-ordinated approach for its development, everything is being done ad-hoc and at best spontaneous.
There are many instances of this unstructured approach towards the support for sports which has left us lagging behind in every regard.
The blame for this must rest squarely on the shoulders of the Ministry of Sport which after its numerous pronouncements of where the Policy is with regard to its completion to be tabled in Parliament, is yet to do so.
To give an example of this amorphous posture, one just have to look at the late support given to two football clubs by President Bharrat Jagdeo which according to Minister Dr. Frank Anthony was to assist them with preparations for their CFU Club Championship engagements.
The act of goodwill came one or two days before the two were scheduled to begin their quest for top honours here in Guyana, affording them little time to get adequate preparations for such a high level tournament.
The Sports Policy is meant to identify legitimate reasons for Government’s involvement in the development of Sport. Among the reasons are to enhance public health benefits, to maximize educational benefits, to encourage the pursuit of excellence, to provide economic benefit and to develop National pride.
Sometime early last year, Dr. Anthony has said that he wanted the National Sports Policy to be approved in parliament by September 2009. He pointed out that the National Sports Policy is yet to be completed and that a draft document is with national sports associations, sporting organisations and other interested parties.
The Minister added that he anticipated the document will be widely discussed, while they were in the process of effecting changes to strengthen a few areas that were missing previously.
Among those areas were the establishment of a sports accreditation body; the promotion of non-traditional sports; collaboration between the government and sport organisations in bidding to host international sporting events; the establishment of a special fund to facilitate training for elite athletes and the implementation of a long-term athletic development programme.
Since then, we could say that we’ve seen them address a couple of those concerns, but the document is yet to be tabled in Parliament or even surface among the major stakeholders. Are we to think that Sport and its development is not among the priorities of the Ministry or by extension the Government?
The absence of the Policy Document has created a negative impact on sports which has ultimately resulted in depressing consequences.
Teams and athletes are leaving these shores to compete in regional and international competitions, but only a few have been able to return with outstanding results and those are the ones whose administrations do not wait around for the meagre support of the authorities.
For sports to really take off in this country a robust policy document must be tabled and approved and Government must be willing to offer substantial financial support for its advancement.
Anything less will only leave us right where we are.

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