Peter Downs, Assistant Director, Sport Development, recently returned from Brazil where he delivered a presentation at the MOVE2012 Conference in October.

The conference was hosted in Sao Paulo by Brazil’s Social Service of Commerce (SESC), which is a national non-profit organisation maintained by local entrepreneurs to support the development of the education, health, leisure, tourism and culture industries. The event was also supported by the Denmark-based International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA).

The Congress provided an ideal opportunity for international leaders in the fields of research, politics and sport to attend and participate in debate sessions and presentations focused on physical activity, sport and citizenship. The Congress spaces included debate sessions and conferences and offered a wide choice of discussions and presentations from world researches, politicians and leaders of sportive organisations.

Peter Downs, whose presentation addressed the conference theme of Present Actions, Platforms for the Future, was invited to take part in a debate focusing on the development and implementation of sport and physical activity programs that include people with a disability. We caught up with him soon after his return.

‘I was invited to speak and take part in a debate focusing on the development and implementation of programs that support the inclusion of people with disability in sport and physical activity programs,’ Mr Downs said. The invitation came on the back of my 20 years experience in this field and 17 years managing the Australian Sport Commission’s (ASC) Disability Sport Unit.

‘It’s great that our work in Australia, like the Disability Education Program (DEP) and Sports CONNECT, still generates interest overseas. The legacy of our work here at the ASC has certainly left a mark internationally.

‘My presentation highlighted the three most important factors that contribute to the establishment of national inclusive sports programs for people with disability – partnerships, agreed outcomes and measure plus finding the right people.

‘Regarding partnerships, I charted the progression of the DEP and then Sports CONNECT, which at their peak had agreements with all state and territory governments and 25 national sports organisations.

‘Agreed outcomes and measures are certainly a key requirement of any collective impact approach. In retrospect the structure we created, particularly through Sports CONNECT, was remarkable in its simplicity yet very effective in terms of implementation. In 2008, we had our 100th partner in the Sports CONNECT network.

‘These partners were National Sporting Organisations, State Sporting Organisations, and clubs, together with state and territory departments of sport and recreation. A key point here was the requirement of political compromise that goes hand-in-hand with negotiating multiple agreements. I am certainly very proud of that era when we were able to really make a difference through the collective efforts of our many partners.  

‘Regarding finding the right people, in my experience the best designed programs in the world can fail to work without the right people. Yet, strange as it is, we put little effort into studying and identifying the personal characteristics of people that are suitable for any given program.

‘I have done some work around identifying the connectors, mavens and salesmen that make inclusion happen and presented an overview, or map, of the many people that have contributed in this way to the development of Sports CONNECT. I was happy with the presentation and received many questions in the debate afterwards. I even had a posse of Brazilians wanting to come to Australia to study our approach!  

‘I often think that the true benefits of attending events such as this are not realised until months, maybe years later. They add to your experience and knowledge in increments over time and this gradually gets more and more valuable. The conference was certainly something different for me and, in that sense, added significantly to my understanding of the broader issues of sport for development and social change. It is always a good thing to have a chance to talk to professionals from overseas.

‘The Conference was attended by more than 580 delegates from 44 countries. While most of the delegates were from South America, it was very interesting to meet people from all over the world who do some outstanding work, particularly in the area of sport for development and social change. I had a chance to talk to people like Dr Vladimir Borkovic, the Chief Operating Officer from Streetfootball World.

‘I also had a great conversation with Karen Keohane, who works for ISCA and has extensive experience in capacity building and advocacy. Her current project around girls participation reinforced for me the value of ‘participant driven’ projects that use value driven monitoring and evaluation programs, similar to our own FairGo Sport project.  

‘I spent quite a bit of time with Simon Koh, Operational Director of Special Olympics Asia Pacific. Simon is well known to our international section. What interested me most about Simon’s work was the drive toward a ‘social inclusion’ agenda in the Asia Pacific for Special Olympics.

The MOVE2013 Conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 October.