Abstract:
The power of sport can bring peace, creates encounter and brings equal opportuni-ties of participation. These are the fundamental arguments of political legitimacy in order to exploit sport for targets of development policies. Furthermore sport was considered as a concrete vehicle of HIV/AIDS prevention in political declarations. During a personal project visit of the Athletics Coach Education initiated by the German Olympic Sports Confederation in Tanzania I was able to confirm the need for prevention especially in African developing countries like Tanzania.
The relationship between HIV/AIDS and sport requires an explanation in the context of development theories. But it seems reasonable as the modern sport embodies the symbols of modern industrial societies and therefore can become a catalyst for the modernization of societies of developing countries. In this context Sport can also con-tribute to the achievement of development goals such as combat against HIV/AIDS.
The results show:
(1) that sport in conjunction with HIV/AIDS prevention can form personality properties among young women in Tanzania, that are crucial for their sexual behaviour. Collective participation and equality, as constitutive elements of sport, provide an opportunity for women’s codetermination within the society. Especially for Muslim women the traditional and religious backgrounds have to be considered.
(2) that sport can create incentives for young men to take part in preventive activities, and therefore can change the prevailing opinion among this group that HIV/AIDS prevention only affects women and their reproductive health. Sport is a suitable instrument, when it creates intrinsic and extrinsic incentives to HIV/AIDS prevention, and when it enlarges the motivation for behaviour changes (for example for adequate condom usage).
(3) that poor people's economic, political and social conditions are the main causes for the lack of protection from HIV/AIDS. These conditions can not be influenced by sport directly. But sport can promote personality, bring equality between the sexes and contribute to the development of personal life-skills. Those are the main basic skills to be successful in modern economies. Those assumptions can be used for positive functions of sport in terms of influencing economic effects.
In conclusion, on the one hand, in general, sport has the potential for development cooperation. On the other hand sport appears as a possible tool in the HIV/AIDS prevention under the specific capabilities and conditions, which are discussed in the thesis. But these theoretical hypotheses must be demonstrated empirically, which require further scientific researches.