DOSB-Projects Worldwide

In February 2019, the long-term football promotion project in Botswana started under the lead of Dr Carolin Braun. Although football is a popular sport in Botswana, there is still a lack of licensed coaches and sports teachers, as well as structural and financial resources. The football expert's task is to promote football – both men's and women's football – at all levels of the association. The project’s focus is therefore on the training of coaches/sport teachers, talent screening and promotion and mentoring of the coaches of representative teams. On a structural level, this implies a concept for youth development and talent screening, the implementation of a structured train-the-trainer system and nationwide training centres. Through decentralisation and the concomitant cooperation with the regional football associations, the project aims to strengthen the structures of the BFA (Botswana Football Association) nationwide. 

Monika Staab, one of Germany’s most successful football coaches and pioneer of women's football worldwide, has been working in Gambia since October 2018 to promote women's football. Her aim is to encourage girls and women to get out and engage in this sport. Football has a very high status in Gambia, both for men and women. Women's football has made good progress in the last two years and enjoys increasing recognition in society. However, and especially for girls and women, concepts for youth development or talent scouting are still not in place, nor are there enough training centres for coaches. The project therefore aims to improve football at regional and national level, with special emphasis on football for girls and women, and school football. To this end, multiplicators are trained through workshops targeting trainers and referees. Furthermore, the range of training offers will be expanded, and talent promotion strengthened. Throughout the whole project, Monika Staab works closely with the local partner association, the Gambia Football Federation. The football project in Gambia is under the patronage of Minister of State Michelle Müntefering.

In Jordan, social participation is particularly encouraged with a focus on psychosocial support. Through various sports, such as handball, basketball or Ultimate Frisbee, children and youth are offered a distraction from their often difficult everyday lives and access to meaningful activities is improved. Through the implementation of sports-pedagogical movement offers, Syrian and Jordanian teenagers come into contact with each other in a playful way, which creates the first interpersonal connections. Further, a large number of multipliers are trained in Jordan and, in cooperation with various professional associations, handbooks are developed for sports education in football, handball, basketball and ultimate frisbee. These manuals are available in English and Arabic and support the local instructors in imparting the "Sport for Development" approach. In this project, the DOSB works closely with the Jordanian Olympic Committee (JOC), the Jordanian sports federations as well as the BMZ and the GIZ.

In February 2017, the long-term project in Kosovo was launched under the lead of the German expert Michael Nees. Although football is a popular sport in Kosovo, there is still a lack of experience, know-how as well as human and financial resources. The task of the expert is to promote football at all levels. In addition to active young people and adults, coaches, referees and association staff, especially sports teachers are addressed by project activities. The focus is also on the long-term improvement of the association structures in all relevant areas of management. This includes above all the expansion of the existing senior and youth league system, as well as the structuring of a training system for trainers, referees and association staff. In particular, the development of women's football is to be promoted by training female coaches and referees. By involving the regional football associations, the project aims to strengthen the structures of the FFK (Football Federation of Kosovo) throughout the country.

Under the slogan: "Education First - Basketball Second", the Basketball Artists School (BAS) teaches social and life skills. The afterschool programme in the Namibian township of Katutura looks after approximately 50 children and young people from difficult and broken backgrounds every school day. Values such as respect, fair play and discipline are taught here through basketball. But before going out on the pitch, the focus is on education by providing educational support such as homework supervision. In that way, BAS combines educational opportunities with sport to help children and young people to find their way to a self-determined life. An example of this combination of Education and Basketball is the successfully completed project "Free Throw - Basketball Artists against HIV/AIDS", which used basketball training to explain the dangers of the infectious disease. In addition, BAS runs an open sports programme ("Open Programme") and thus also offers meaningful leisure activities to those children who are not BAS students. Due to the numerous positive experiences, the BAS concept was extended geographically to the rural regions of Namibia's north. A central component of the BAS is the training of so-called junior coaches in the capital Windhoek and in the country's north. The young people themselves are trained as coaches, learning to take responsibility for the community, younger people and to act as multipliers for the values of sport. This leads to a sustainable anchoring of sports education expertise in the local community. 

From December 2016, in cooperation with the GIZ and the Turkish Olympic Committee (TMOK), Turkish and Syrian multipliers have been trained in south-eastern Turkey near the border to Syria with the goal of establishing sustainable sports and exercise programmes in clubs, schools and community centres. Thereby, intercultural exchange, mutual respect and the appreciation of diversity between Syrian refugees and the local population are promoted. Sport is used to convey values such as respect, fair play and team spirit and to create incentives for education. Children and youth who are reached through sports education programmes can build up trusting relationships and friendships with their peers and experience a shared sense of achievement. The workshops mainly take place in the cities of Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Kirikhan and involve a wide range of sports such as football, table tennis, basketball, athletics, karate and taekwondo. In 24 workshops, 500 sports for development multipliers were trained and more than 18,000 children and youths were reached with regular activities.

Together with 28 different local and international partners, the DOSB is implementing the "Athletics for Development" (A4D) approach in Uganda. The overriding goal is to create awareness of social and health issues through the basic movement forms of running, jumping and throwing as well as through sports pedagogical forms of play. In addition to the inclusion of people with disabilities and the promotion of rural youth, the project focuses in particular on strengthening social cohesion within the local communities. Uganda is home to more than 1.3 million refugees from neighbouring countries (Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi). This confronts the country's population, which is affected by conflict and fragility, with social and economic challenges such as securing basic and health care or providing quality education. Especially in the severely affected north of Uganda, this can lead to conflicts between local and refugee communities. In addition, further educational content impart knowledge on the topic of sustainability, such as how to produce one's own sports materials from the available local resources. In implementing the project, the DOSB is working closely with the BMZ and GIZ as well as World Athletics and the Ugandan Olympic and Paralympic Committee (UOC/UPC).

From December 2017 till December 2019, the DOSB has facilitated a long-term project in Bolivia under the lead of athletics expert Oliver Scheer. In cooperation with the Federación Atlética de Bolivia (FAB) and the Ministry of Sport, the German sports expert was involved in an advisory capacity in the preparation, organisation and implementation of the South American Games 2018 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Further focal points were the improvement of the internal association structures as well as strategic optimisation (competition schedule, administration, marketing/sponsoring, etc.). Oliver Scheer has implemented these tasks together with the FAB and the nine national associations, which were flanked by further training for trainers and referees as well as the training of multipliers in the areas of coaching, competition, refereeing and administration. Both children's and youth’s athletics as well as Bolivian elite level athletics benefited from this. Yet another aim of the project was to promote dual careers (training and sport) in order to reduce the "drop-out" of many talented athletes.