Research And Publications
Related content
This strand underpins UK Sport’s work on sport development by building up a credible evidence base for the use of sport as a tool for human and social development, raising awareness, and sharing best practice.
It works through the following methods:
- Continual monitoring & evaluation of programmes to feed into the overall ‘picture’ of successes and challenges on the ground
- Examining best practice
- Using in-house and external researchers to undertake specific research projects
- Hosting or bringing together practitioners and/or policy makers at conferences and workshops
Download and read Fred Coalter's seminal M&E Manual [PDF, 1,037k]
Research Projects
Testing Times
UK Sport, in partnership with Comic relief, has published a review looking into HIV counselling in sport for development programmes. The review paper, entitled ‘TESTING TIMES: Review of HIV Counselling and Testing within Sports for development Programmes for Young People in Southern Africa’, is now available to download here.
Sport for Development Research Initiative
Measuring the impact of sport for development- UK Sport has partnered with Comic Relief in an innovative project to build a body of evidence about the role sport can play in improving the lives of disadvantaged communities internationally. Professor Fred Coalter, an expert in the field of monitoring and evaluation from the University of Stirling, has been supporting the participating organisations develop tools to measure and assess the impact of sport in their programmes and produce a impact report on the findings of the data gathered.
The research project took place over 3 years and included an in-depth analysis of six sport for development programmes in India and Africa to generate a body of evidence on the impact of these programmes.
Download and read the Executive Summary [PDF, 66k]
Download and read the Full Report [PDF, 1,036k]
Go Sister's external monitoring and evaluation project – Zambia
The Go Sisters project is a well-established sport-in-development initiative now benefitting from a structured five-year programme of investment and development (through DFID). On-going measurement of programme impact has a crucial role to play in informing the development of the plan throughout the five year period, capturing lessons learnt, and providing credible evidence of achievements. and the impact on the peer leaders and participants within the programme.
IDS (UK Sport’s charitable arm) in partnership with EduSport Foundation, through DFID, CGC and UK Sport support, have begun (June 2009) a four year impact research project with Tess Kay, (Brunel University, UK) and Ruth Jeanes (Monash University, Australia). The research project will focus on the impact of the programme on participants; a longitudinal study on the peer leaders involved in the programme; and EduSport capacity building in gathering and analyzing data.
International community Coach Education Systems (ICES) Research
UK Sport is working collaboratively with Leeds Metropolitan on this research that is focused on community coach education and how it can be made to work most effectively. Specifically this piece of work is investigating the impact of interventions to support the development of community coaches with UK Sport’s ICES initiative.
Developing employability skills the IDEALS way
Research completed over 2011 found that university students involved in the IDEALS programme developed skills and experiences that added to their cultural intelligence, a skill highly desired by employers in the 21st Century. The report is written by Dr. Lynne Powell, Human Resource specialist and Senior Lecturer and Northumbria University.
IDEALS Evaluation 2011 [PDF, 1,259k]
IDEALS Zambia Summary Report 2013 [PDF, 1,134k]
To view PDF files you will require Acrobat Reader
To view PDF files you will require Acrobat Reader
Child Friendly Sport
This project was initiated with a view to building a case for a wider project focused on encouraging/supporting action within relevant government, civil society and academic institutions to develop policies, strategies and implementation programmes leading to child-friendly sport.
Research collaboration
Additionally members of UK Sport’s International Development team are collaborating with different higher education institutions on specific research and publications including:
- Conceptualisations, issues and challenges of child friendly sport
- The role of the sport and development coach
- The positioning and use of sport as a tool for social development, in particular within the international development sphere
Once publications and research papers become available – they will be downloadable here.