I would like to applaud the sports ministry and her partners, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), for finally putting shoulder to the wheel in making sure the long-awaited Namibia Sports Development Index (NSDI) finally becomes a reality.
For starters, the NSDI involves conducting a survey and collecting sports-related data that will help the country project the overall growth of the local sports sector, and to also identify which areas need improvement, and which portions of society are left out from the benefits of sports.
The NSDI survey, which will soon be carried out with the assistance of over 52 laptops and more than 1600 copies of Sport4Life manuals donated by the GIZ, also strives to provide accurate data on the overall status of sports, especially on how sports is perceived by locals,
and how it can be aligned with the
various national development plans such as the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) and the Harambee Prosperity Plan 2.
Furthermore, information from the NSDI survey will complement the overall sports policy on Integrated Physical Education and Schools Sports that is currently being developed.
The laptops are already preloaded with special data- collection software, developed to assist in conducting and collecting timely statistics for the NSDI initiative.
The Sport4Life manuals are perfectly designed to provide insightful information on a variety of codes such as basketball, football, netball and volleyball, amongst others. The donated laptops and manuals are worth over N$1.8 million.
As much as I welcome the upcoming NSDI initiative and applaud all parties involved for the tremendous efforts being put forth, I would also like to take this opportunity to caution the ministry to ensure the initiative doesn’t become another futile endeavour by the ministry.
We had similar exciting initiatives before, but their resolutions and final implementation are not known to date. What happened to the resolutions and eventual implementation of the many sports conferences that were held years ago?
What happened to the many strategic plans of the sports ministry, and those of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) that were launched over the years? The end- results of those strategic plans are equally still not known to date.
I’m not being a prophet of doom. I’m simply just cautioning my colleagues at the sports ministry to understand the importance of pulling the NSDI initiative off, as it will go a long way in making sure the government takes informed decisions which will be directed and guided by fresh and updated statistics.
Statistics and data in general are key when making developmental decisions, especially regarding an underperforming sector like our sports industry. As they say, you can only fully fix something if you can quantify and understand what you are dealing with.
If Namibia is to fully address our many sports problems, the NSDI will go a long way in helping government and the ministry in particular make informed and timely decisions.
Until next time, sharp sharp!!