1. INNOVATION &
ENTREPRENEURSHIP :
STAYING CURRENT AND
VIABLE
Power of Sport Summit
June 11, 2010
Awista Ayub – Author, Kabul Girls Soccer Club
www.awistaayub.com

2. Presentation Overview
 Experience working in Afghanistan with women’s
soccer
 Lessons learned from my years of experience in the
field
 How I applied it to a similar in Morocco with
women’s soccer

4. Limiting Factors
 Did not think through the follow-up
 Access to resources – funding
 Access to local mentors
 Access to local governing body
 Lack of understanding of the sport in the context of the
country’s sports history

5. Sport Exchange Model
 Widely used approach within sports and
development programs;
 U.S. Department of State
 Various sport and development organizations either as
their sole program or in conjunction with other aspects
of their program

6. Drive to Promote a Participatory
Approach
 Taking on a horizontal hierarchy approach
 Can lead to having a longer term impact on the
individual and the community
 Attempts to seek out knowledge from the community,
and then utilize that knowledge in planning sport
related programs

7. Community Development
 “Successful community leadership development is a
process whereby committed individuals work with
others in their community to achieve positive social
change that builds assets across the
capitals.” (Emery, Fernandez, Gutierrez-Montes, &
Flora, 2007 p. 69).

8. Getting it right
 Set up the participants for success rather than
failure
 Identified
the limiting factors, and need to act on
addressing these issues
 Motivate the participants into action
 Connect sport to community development
 Expand the impact beyond the few participants
 View the participants as implementers rather than
simply the program beneficiaries

9. Project Based Sport Exchange Case
Study
 Conducted in coordination with the Morrocan NGO
AMSD
 Nikefunded Women Win grant, sponsored four
Moroccan female soccer players to the States (June
2008)
 Modeled after the Ashoka Youth Venture program
 Program evaluation conducted in April 2009 with
the guidance of the University of Delaware
 Dr.
Matthew Robinson, Dr. Marian Palley, Professor Eric
Jacobson

10. Limiting Factors Addressed
 On the field soccer training
 Project development, management, budgeting and
implementation guidance
 Local mentorship support
 Funding support ($250/participant) for the
development of the local in-country project thus
helping to provide a foundation for the players to
make a community contribution

11. Project Implemented

12. Recommendations
 Provide project management and training to
program participants
 Provide seed-funding
 Provide mentorship support
 Conduct proper follow-up program evaluations as a
way to determine the effectiveness of the program
and to add greater discourse to the field of
international sports and development