Sport for humanitarian action. A Do No Harm approach

Abstract

Sport for humanitarian action (SHA) refers to the investment and intervention activities, which use sport as an instrument to achieve humanitarian action purposes, such as, alleviate suffering, peace-building, maintain human dignity and protect victims´ fundamental rights. Furthermore, sport can be a competent psychosocial method and a significant fund-raising and awareness vehicle.
In order to reach these outcomes, sport for humanitarian action is required to fulfil certain conditions: it must respect the humanitarian principles (the Code of Conduct in Humanitarian Relief of the International Red Cross Crescent Movement); concentrate on non-related sport goals (plus sport approach); follow up a logic process, based on behaviour change; work in partnership with different stakeholders, and put in motion an effective monitoring and evaluation process. The present article describes these conditions, giving a framework for designing a Do no Harm Sport intervention.

Published online: 11 December 2017