5th Meeting of the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport

The Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport (CABOS) was established by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2005 to ‘promote sport as a positive part of nation building and human development, particularly youth development.’ Its mandate is to advise the Commonwealth Secretariat and member governments on sports policy, and work with the Commonwealth Games Federation and other non-governmental organizations to enhance collaboration on sport for development.

During its first four years, under chair Sue Campbell (UK), CABOS demonstrated the power of sport to contribute to the realization of governmental objectives in education, health, gender and youth development. Representatives of CABOS made presentations at meetings of the Commonwealth ministers responsible for sport, health, education and youth to show the benefits of ‘mainstreaming’ sport in social policy.

At its 2009 meeting in London, under chair Bruce Kidd (Can), CABOS

• welcomed the new members
• Louise Martin (UK)
• Sindhushree Khullar (India)
• Sanjeev Commar, proxy for new member David Learmonth, (AUS)
• Iammo Launa (Papua New Guinea)

• thanked Commonwealth Secretary Kamalesh Sharma for his support, particularly his work to obtain funding for a full-time staff position attached to CABOS. Under the Sharma formula, every government hosting the Commonwealth Games will pay for a full-time staff person to carry on the work of CABOS for the four-year period beginning two years prior to the Games and ending four years following those Games. India will thus fund this position until 2012, then hopefully Scotland for the next period. CABOS thanked the Government of India for agreeing to this arrangement.

• thanked UK Sport Chair Sue Campbell for the financial and staff assistance of UK Sport during the previous period, and during the last year, Nick Pink for his generous, professional assistance.

• welcomed the administrative location of sport within the Commonwealth Youth Program (CYP) and the collaborative support of its director, Fatiha Serour.

• welcomed the participation of a representative of the Pan-Commonwealth Youth Caucus, Ivan Zammit, in its meeting.

• recommended that the membership of CABOS be expanded to 14 members, including a female and male representative of the Youth Caucus.

• recommended that the terms of all members be extended to four years, commensurate with the four-year planning cycles of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and that the terms of the representatives of the host governments of Commonwealth Games be extended to the end of the planning cycles in which their respective Games were held.

With respect to its mandate, CABOS reiterated that the overarching focus of its work is to marshal sport to the realization of the major development tasks of Commonwealth societies, and particularly the achievement of development goals in education, health, gender and youth development, in keeping with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Strategic Plan.

Research demonstrates that unless sport is conducted with explicit educational and social objectives, with trained and supportive leaders, adequate and safe facilities, and effective links to other social agencies and programs, the hoped-for developmental outcomes cannot be guaranteed.

CABOS will therefore

• Work closely with the CYP to ensure that sport for development is effectively ‘mainstreamed’ into all advocacy and other activities of the CYP, including its regional offices, and to report on this work to the 2010 meetings of the senior officials responsible for youth and the Commonwealth Sport Ministers.

• Encourage the creation of a depository of relevant government policies and examples of government-initiated ‘best practices’ relating to sport for development, and the replication of ‘best practices’ as appropriate to local circumstances.

• Encourage the monitoring and evaluation for government policies and programs in sport for development.

• Encourage strategic partnerships with appropriate stakeholders, such as the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace, and programs such as International Inspiration.

• Endorse the continuation of the Commonwealth conference on sport for development and assist in securing future hosts and resources.

• Update and strengthen the CABOS reports, and augment them with data and case studies that demonstrate the benefits of sport, including the social and economic benefits of staging of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games.

• Continue to advocate for the mainstreaming of sport within other major Commonwealth portfolios, including youth, education, health, women affairs, finance and foreign affairs, and at the forthcoming CHOGM Sports Breakfast in Trinidad.

• Encourage all Commonwealth nations to ratify the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport and honour their financial and other commitments to the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Regional Anti-Doping Organizations, and the CYP.

CABOS will continue to meet annually and will convene ad hoc meetings as required.