ABSTRACT
This chapter explores issues surrounding the use of sport in support of female empowerment in international development contexts. The chapter is based on work with the GOAL project, a programme for young women operated by the NAZ Foundation (India) Trust. NAZ is a New Delhi-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that has worked in the field of HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health since 1994; sport is a relatively recent addition to the Trust’s range of activities. The GOAL programme uses netball as a medium through which young women aged 13-19 can be reached, allowing NAZ to deliver a programme of sport, education and life skills in Delhi’s poorer communities. The overarching aim of the project is to empower women to take control of their own lives and, beyond that, to become leaders and social activists in their communities. Through its focus on women’s empowerment the GOAL project sits within a well-established
strand of modern international development work in which gender equity has emerged as a core focus for achieving social and economic advancement in the world’s poorer countries. This chapter therefore locates its analysis of the programme within this wider policy context. It draws on research undertaken with GOAL in 2008, using this to examine the potential benefits of a sports-based programme with a specific commitment to empowering young women.
