China and Africa unite through sports diplomacy

SPORTS are increasingly emerging as a powerful connection that unites people, acting as a glue holding bilateral and multilateral relations through shared purpose and commitment to mutually beneficial relations development.

- GIDEON CHITANGA

Sports are a powerful, universal tool for achieving national and international development, including broader goals like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They play a vital role in development by fostering physical and mental health, building life skills like teamwork and resilience, promoting social inclusion and national unity, curbing youth violence, and driving economic growth.

Sports provide immense economic opportunities that could drive sustainable economic growth and development, in addition to bridging adversities of human diversity and cultural experiences, especially where such differences sustain human prejudices.

The global sports industry is a massive, multi-trillion-dollar market, with recent estimates placing its value at around $477 billion to over $600 billion. In 2024, the sports industry in Africa was valued at over $12 billion annually, with projections to reach $20 billion by 2035, driven by massive youth populations and growing digital engagement. However, the African continent only uses and benefits from a small global share of the sports industry due to a lack of infrastructure and the failure to exploit its significant potential in areas such as broadcasting, sponsorship, and sports technologies.

Many young people fail to advance their careers due to a lack of necessary sports infrastructures, financial and medical support, and sophisticated sporting systems. Competing priorities over resource allocation between national and continental development interests versus sporting priorities negate investment in sports and account for minimal deployment of resources in sports development, applied technologies, and basic infrastructure like stadiums.