Sport as a vehicle for integration and social cohesion among young people in Togo

In Togo, over 60% of the population is under 25, and the youth unemployment rate is above 29%, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED, 2022). In rural areas, educational, professional, and recreational opportunities remain scarce, with many young people at risk of social exclusion, school dropout, or financial hardship.

In light of these challenges, sport, which is recognized by the UN as an enabler of development and peace, remains an underexploited means of empowering young people. This is despite the fact that numerous international studies have highlighted sport’s positive impact on academic performance, professional motivation, and mental health (Bailey, 2005; Hollar et al., 2010). Sport can also help foster social cohesion in regions where the inequality gap is widening.

Founded in 2013, the LYSD (Leading Youth Sport and Development) association uses basketball as a tool to promote social empowerment through the Milédou program, which is now being implemented in more than 15 communities, with 5,000 young people taking part. This innovative program combines sport, education, and social support to develop synergies between sports instructors, households, and schools. Its work is based on three key pillars: training for coaches, the opportunity to play league basketball, and targeted extracurricular activities, ranging from academic support to career guidance, as well as workshops on mental health, sexual health, and gender equality. This unique model leverages sport as a vehicle for personal development, social cohesion, and access to new opportunities.

With support from FID, and in collaboration with the research firm IDinsight, LYSD is now launching a new phase: a Preparation Grant will be used to improve the program’s management through data, hone its theory of change, define relevant impact indicators, and develop a robust monitoring system.

Led by Jean-Luc Agboyibo, the association's founder, the project draws heavily on community support, driven in particular by the "Milés", former beneficiaries of the program, who often play an active role in its transmission and expansion.

This phase should lay the foundations for establishing proof of impact and scaling-up the program, by developing a better understanding of causal chain mechanisms and the conditions for reproducibility. The main deliverables are:

• An operational monitoring system with appropriate impact indicators that will be defined and used by the team;
• Training of teams in monitoring and evaluation methods and data use;
• An initial pilot phase of data collection to estimate the program’s impact and refine the impact evaluation design;
• A feasibility analysis for scale-up, in line with the project's economic model and operational efficiency.