Sport brings together people and encourages participation. It contributes to the health and well-being of children and youth. It is enjoyable and transmits values such as fairness, team spirit, tolerance and understanding. When utilised in an educational and appropriate manner, sport enhances self-esteem, self-confidence and promotes readiness to take on responsibility. Participating in sport, children and young people learn to handle victory as well as defeat. They acquire life skills that help them deal with challenging situations and improve their prospective futures. More than any other field, sport is connected to the heart of civil society, facilitates participation and creates a sense of belonging that transcends ethnic and social divides. As an innovative approach of development cooperation, sport can provide individual and social incentives for change and sustainable development. The strength of the S4D approach lies in its cross-cutting nature, where it can contribute to designated development goals like health, gender equality or social cohesion. 

The S4D Essentials give you a general idea on:

• What S4D is about
• How sport can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Which S4D Competences can be gained
• Capacity Development Procedures
• Teaching and Learning Materials
• Events
• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities
• Additional resources are provided, if you want to go deeper into the subject matter