The Federal Foreign Office’s International Sports Promotion (ISP)

The ISP has formed part of Germany’s cultural relations and education policy since 1961. Since then short- and long-term projects have been carried out in developing countries in various sports. The ISP is not, however, classic development assistance but sees itself mainly as help towards self-help. Team spirit, mutual respect, tolerance and fairness, positive “side-effects”, are meant to be encouraged and consolidated through participation in sports, as these are social skills that are vital for peaceful coexistence, also outside sports.

The aim of the ISP is to advance the development of amateur and popular sports in developing countries. With this in mind the Federal Foreign Office specifically promotes women’s, disabled, war-victim and youth sports so as to better integrate minorities and marginalized groups.

In close cooperation with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the German Football Association (DFB), the Federal Foreign Office seconds German sports experts to regions classified as eligible for promotion by the OECD to carry out training courses and hold training sessions with enthusiastic amateur and leisure-time sportsmen and ‑women, as well as to advise the national sports associations on creating modern sports structures. The Federal Foreign Office also, in cooperation with the DFB’s training academies, the German Athletics Federation (DLV) and the sport science departments of the Universities of Leipzig and Mainz, invites sports coaches to attend courses in Germany and obtain a coaching certificate. In addition, the projects and sports associations are donated equipment, balls, shirts and so on, in order to create an adequate sporting environment for the participant players and coaches.

The ISP’s many projects and measures help contribute towards international understanding by encouraging intercultural dialogue, strengthening minorities and trying to prevent prejudice. “On the Move – Overcoming Borders”, the motto of the 2010 sports initiative, is designed to demonstrate that Germany stands for all the positive values people can experience together when playing sports: joie de vivre, cosmopolitanism and fairness.

Last updated 22.03.2010