Your Views on Sport

Can sport be a tool toward development? Check out what the Youthink! audience is saying, and then join the discussion on Facebook.

Menkoue Stéphane, 22, Cameroon: No. Because when I look at what happens in some African countries like Cameroon which have a great football team, it's rather like, sports contribute to impoverishing the country, because of all the money spent to buy equipment, and players' hotels when they go to competitions, etc. I think all that money can be more useful if the government used it to build schools and hospitals for example.

Bonface Witaba, 29, Kenya: @Stéphane: That's due to ‘poor planning and management.' Failing to plan is planning to fail. In Kenya there are such isolated cases, but some have helped uplift slum youth, both male and female, to greater heights in Kenya (Matahare United FC case in point).Other youth have gone all the way to Norway, Sweden, Italy and France, thus empowering and uplifting their families and communities. It all depends on management and planning.

Nkonyane Cikose, 35, Swaziland: @Bonface: I agree with u, poor planning and poor management can lead to underdevelopment! Sports play an important role indeed, especially for youth with academic difficulties. They are very good in sports and they can make money out of it. That's development.

Akpoveta Valentine, 24, Nigeria: Sports can, in immense ways, help in development if properly channeled. It provides inspiration for people from humble backgrounds (when they see others who have made it), it can help in promotion of societal ideals, (like in the case of Nwankwo Kano's Heart Foundation in my country Nigeria), can aid in giving back to society, can bridge great divides, can stop (or, at the very least, suspend) wars, as in the case of Olympics, can provide job opportunities, the avenues are countless …!