Second edition of PLAY International’s “Sport and Development in Senegal” seminar

Senegal is an exceptional country in terms of sport, both because of its political ambition to shine on an international scalpe through sport (Dakar 2026 YOG), but also because of the active fabric of structures gravitating in and around the ecosystem of sport for development. Despite an active civil society in this sector, and several initiatives promoting the sharing of information, the organisations of the society often lack structure and moments to share expertise and experiences.

It is with a view to strengthening the capacity of civil society organisations that PLAY International is now aiming to create a network and provide CSOs with the benefit of one-off events to meet some of the needs identified.

To address these needs, PLAY, with the support of La Guilde, mobilised more than 50 representatives from 40 civil society organisations from Ziguinchor, Bignona, Thiès, Saint-Louis, Louga, Dakar, and even outside of Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo, to participate in the PLAY Sport & Development 2023 seminar, with the main theme of “Sport at the Service of Inclusion”, in Dakar on 16, 17 and 18 February 2023. The programme enabled a meeting between representatives of civil society organisations from the four corners of Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo in order to create emulation between the actors of the sector, to allow a sharing of good experiences but also to be at the origin of synergies and common actions. This second seminar will also be innovative in that PLAY and other actors such as Tackle will share new methodologies with a high social impact.

During 3 days, the actors of this ecosystem came to listen to the speakers of two round tables on the inclusion of gender and people with disabilities through sport, were able to find out more about new methodologies favouring gender diversity such as Playdagogy and Socio-sport, and were able, thanks to two half-day workshops, to sharpen their knowledge and skills in terms of intervention logic and project structuring.

Congratulations to all these civil society actors and project managers who are at the heart of societal change in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo.

This event was made possible thanks to the financial support of AFD and the Region of Ile de France.