Social impact assessment and sport development: Social Spin-Offs of the Australia-South Africa Junior Sport Programme

Drawing on the body of knowledge of social impact research, this article offers the rationale, methodology and results of the social impact of the junior component of the Australia-South Africa Sport Development Programme. Academics from different disciplines developed and refined a multidimensional, flexible impact assessment tool for the research that was undertaken in the Northern Province and the Eastern Cape in 1999. The Programme that was fed through the educational system in contexts of poverty was monitored and assessed in relation to individual and core sociological indicators at macro-, meso- and micro-levels. The change that was indicated by the presenters (school teachers), participants (children) and other national and regional stakeholders portrays perceptions and experiences of “social change” in terms of ideology, socialization, empowerment, equity and access to participation and decision-making against the background of material constraints and the manifestations of poverty.