The cabinet meeting recently approved the revised sports development policy which seeks to unearth, nurture and promote sports development from the grassroots level.

The new policy which will run until 2030, revises the 2012/17 sports policy which, to many, had not delivered the targets that Rwandans in the sports sector expected.

Since the Culture department was deployed to the Ministry of Youth in November 2019, the Ministry of Sports has been working on the revised policy which was approved last week so it can meet the government’s fresh ambitions for the sports sector.

Times Sport looks at key point highlighted in the revised sports development policy:

Decentralisation

The revised sports development policy will be decentralized from the neighborhoods until a talent is nurtured into a finished product.

"We want to see parents, the community, clubs and federations contributing to this policy and the Ministry will be there to support any sports development-oriented initiatives,” Sports Minister Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju said.

Under the revised sports policy, MINISPORTS is planning to tour the country in search of new young talents in different sporting disciplines.

We have realized that there is a lot of young people in communities that have various talents and we devised this policy to make sure that talented children are nurtured in different categories.

The Ministry will also work closely with all stakeholders, especially federations and the Ministry of Education, during the implementation of the policy.

"We will work with federations to make sure that the development strategy of new talent succeeds from one level to another. The Ministry of Education will help us in this move because the policy targets to reach out to children in their respective schools,” she said.

Engaging private sector

Companies like Rwanda Energy Group (REG), Bank of Kigali (BK), MTN Rwanda, Azam, SKOL, Airtel and Cogebanque among others have shown their interest in investing in the sports sector over the past years targeting to use the sports brands as one of the best ways to promote their business products and services.

Minister Munyangaju said the Ministry expects more private companies to join existing sports partners to enhance their contribution to the development of sports.

"There are companies that are already investing in sports in Rwanda but we want to see more partners coming in to successfully implement the revised policy. The revised policy has been designed with an ambitious objective to engage the private sector to contribute to the cause,” Munyangaju said. 

The revised sports development policy also elaborates the role of sport in international relations. The Ministry targets to emphasize international partnerships to push the sports sector from one level to another.

"We want to work with our embassies across the world to understand what partnerships we can build with other countries and see how Rwanda can benefit from those partnerships,” she said.

More sports facilities to be constructed

The lack of sports facilities has been one of crucial challenges that the young generation face, claiming that they are struggling to access playgrounds for training.

However, through the revised sports policy, the Ministry targets to construct community Centres in every district across the country before decentralizing more sports infrastructures to the grassroots level.

One of the biggest issues that worry Munyangaju and his office is that children don’t have access to facilities where they can go and play during holidays or during their free time without paying.

"We are aware that there is a shortage of playgrounds in schools but we can’t, all of a sudden, forget the issue of overcrowding in schools. Many were forced to use their playgrounds to build more classrooms to be able to accommodate students,” she explained.

"But we believe, through the new sports policy, we will work hand-in-hand with the education ministry to address that issue. It’s a process that can’t be addressed instantly but, in the meantime, we will be exploring the possibility of schools sharing playgrounds,” she added.

As per the policy, each federation will be requested to do its own sports development policy, present action plan and their target contribution in talent development, infrastructure and I believe that will help us during our policy implementation.

Inter-school sports competitions made mandatory

Minister Munyangaju admits the level of sports competitions in schools are obviously past their best to the extent that some talented students, for instance, shift from a school where they would play and, when they reach other schools which don’t support sports, they risk an opportunity to keep exploiting their talent and hence see them go to waste.

But for now, the Minister said that sports competitions are mandatory from Primary and Secondary schools to universities.

The Ministry has already reached a partnership agreement with French firm, Agence française de développement (AFD) to ensure the success of sports competitions are well organised and coordinated from the beginning to the final stages.

 "Competitions in schools are mandatory and sports itself as a lesson is also mandatory and that means something big. We are approaching some partners to help schools in talent development and we hope these competitions will help us discover new talents,” Munyangaju said.

Through the competitions and other special talents detection initiatives, the Ministry and federations target to bring best performing talents together and join the new Isonga Programme which has been extended from just football to other sporting disciplines.