WBSC publishes updated Baseball5 Toolkit, which encourages UNHCR's Sports for Protection approach

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) published a new Baseball5 Toolkit, including an update on the Sport for Protection (SfP) approach, the tool based on the Quality Physical Education concept and used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR) to help displaced youth to well being and social inclusion.

The Toolkit includes nine Exercise Cards for drills in an SfP setting. The cards are linked to a QR code and can be used as a handbook.

Quality Physical Education is grounded in the equality of opportunity for all students to access a well-balanced and inclusive curriculum. It also supports acquiring psychomotor, social, and emotional skills that make self-confident and resilient citizens. It also emphasises the value of physical literacy as a key developmental milestone that contributes to body ownership, physical competency, and enjoyment of lifelong physical activity.

The UNHCR annual Global Trends report, released in June 2024, stated that 120 million people worldwide are estimated to be displaced because of persecution, conflict, and violence. Forty per cent of that number are children under the age of 18.

Baseball5 features most QPE principles. In fact, it is both a playful activity that aims to satisfy the student's motivation and, therefore, correctly contribute to the construction of his or her personality and a motor practice characterised by some competitive components suitably dosed according to the degree of physiological, motor, and psychological development of the individual.

The SfP approach uses sport and play to achieve positive social outcomes for displaced people and their host communities. These “protection outcomes” focus on improving participants’ psychosocial well-being, social inclusion, and social cohesion.

SfP is about three sectors: (1) child protection, which seeks to strengthen young people’s protective environments and reduce their risk factors for abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence; (2) youth empowerment, which identifies and encourages the use of young people’s assets and potential, and (3) sport for development and peace (SDP), which provides an efficient, flexible and cost-effective way of promoting peace and development across societies.