The website www.sport-for-development.com is the result of over 10 years of work and expertise built up by German development cooperation under the leadership of the BMZ and giz. In cooperation with the German Sport University Cologne, the Resource Toolkit was developed between 2017 and 2023 and has been continued by giz's global project “Sport for Development” between September 2023 and July 2025. In recent years, the S4D Resource Toolkit website has increased the visibility of sport for development as an effective approach to German development cooperation both at national and international level.  

The Toolkit provides theoretical and practice-oriented resources which serve to promote the use of sport as a tool to achieve development goals, to improve S4D knowledge and practice, and to encourage those with an interest  to implement  S4D projects and activities.

The Toolkit is relevant for development experts and practicioners as well as anyone with an interest in sport and development theory and practice.

The S4D Resource Toolkit website contains theoretical and practical resources for the sport for development community, i.e. for development cooperation planners, projects, partner organizations and individuals such as coaches and teachers who want to use sport for development.

The Toolkit is structured according to the following sections:

(1) The S4D Essentials presents information responding to key questions, these describes the basic aspects of our work. 

(2) The S4D Topic Collection provides recommendations and practical examples on how sport can be used to achieve certain development goals and how it can be used in different contexts.

(3) In the S4D Country Collection, you will find all the different GIZ supported S4D programmes and projects, which are presented  by country. 

(4) In the News section you can stay informed about the latest S4D developments.

(5) Sign-up to our Newsletter to receive updates from the GIZ S4D team. 

You will find different types of tools, e.g. guidelines, M&E tools, templates, publications etc. (definitions of temrs see GLOSSARY) to make S4D part of your own work.

What are the "SDGs"? What is the difference between an "S4D Instructor" and an "S4D Coach"? What is meant with the term "Capacity Development" and what are "S4D Competences"?

In our GLOSSARY you will find definitions for the various terms used on this website. 

Within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1), sport is highlighted as an important enabler of sustainable development. It is viewed as a means to teach tolerance and respect and to contribute to the empowerment of women, young people, individuals and communities as well as to health, education and social inclusion objectives. For example, the potential contribution of sport toward ‘gender equality’ is promoting female leaders and role models or raising awareness on gender issues. You can find more detailed examples of how S4D can be used in different contexts in the S4D Essentials. 

The target group for S4D programmes can be divided into three groups:

The first group is comprised of stakeholders and politicians who are possible supporters and partners of S4D programmes. This group also includes those who do not have a lot of prior S4D knowledge.

The second group consists of people who would like to become multipliers (e.g. trainers, coaches, social workers etc.) within the S4D field. They can participate in workshops and trainings where they will  learn how to teach S4D activities to children and youth as well as how to teach others to become trainers themselves.

The third group is made of the final recipients of the sport programmes, who  are children and youth; particularly those from regions affected by poverty. These young people often have to cope with additional disadvantages arising from the social, political and cultural circumstances in their home countries. Girls and young women receive special consideration, since there is a lack of projects geared to their needs and often they have only limited access to educational and social programmes.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is an essential part of the cycle of a S4D programme and part of all GIZ’s S4D activities on the ground. In general, monitoring is integral to evaluation. During an evaluation, information from previous monitoring processes is used to understand the ways in which a project or programme develops and stimulates change. Monitoring focuses on the measurement of the following aspects of an intervention:

• The frequency and quality of the implemented activities (outputs: What do we do? How do we manage our activities?)
• The internal processes of a project or programme (outcomes: What were the effects /changes that occurred as a result of your intervention?)
• The external processes of an intervention (impact: Which broader, long-term effects were triggered by the implemented activities in combination with other environmental factors?)

The evaluation process is an analysis or interpretation of the collected data which delves deeper into the relationships between the results of a project/programme, the effects produced by the project/programme and the overall impact of the project/programme.

In the S4D Essentials section you will find more information about M&E in the field of S4D.

In the S4D Country Collection sections you will find example M&E tools, which are used in our programmes and projects in different countries and contexts.