The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) in partnership with Australia’s Agency for International Development (AusAID) is introducing a new research project to monitor and evaluate the contribution of the Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) to community development in the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Nauru and Kiribati.

ASOP is an Australian Government initiative delivered in cooperation between the ASC and AusAID which aims to increase the capacity of in-country partners to plan and conduct quality, sport-based activities which contribute to addressing locally identified development priorities.

As part of the project the ASC, with its partners, will assess the impact, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the ASOP in the Pacific, as well as strengthen the monitoring and evaluation capacity of key in-country partners.

The ASC’s International Sport for Development and National Sports Research teams and 11 ASOP in-country partners from the Pacific attended a three-day monitoring and evaluation research development workshop at the ASC recently. 

The workshop was the first stage of the evaluation design phase, with research and monitoring and evaluation activities being undertaken over the next three years for the ASOP in the Pacific.  

The workshop provided an opportunity for the in-county partners to share their ideas and experiences about the individual country programs to help develop a monitoring and evaluation approach that is most applicable to their situation.  This is a very important part of the process, as one size does not fit all in the Pacific Islands.  For example, the focus in Tonga is on reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.  In the Solomon Islands, the focus is youth participation and leadership, while the aim of the ASOP Fiji program is to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities through sport.

Sophie Beauvais, the International Sport for Development Director, explained the objectives of the workshop.

‘A key aim of the workshop was to engage the local in-country partners to ensure we develop a monitoring and evaluation framework that is easy to implement at the program level, while providing us with the right tools to identify program impacts and build the capacity of our partners in the Pacific to undertake future evaluations of their own programs,’ said Beauvais.

For more information about the ASC’s International Sport for Development Program contact Sophie Beauvais on (02) 6214 1634.