Regional implementation of New Zealand sport policy: new instrument, new challenges

Abstract

Policies aiming to enhance sport participation and physical activity are prone to change and highly influenced by shifting government priorities and instruments. In 2009, the New Zealand Government and its agency Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) abolished programmes aimed at inducing general physical activity and in their place established Kiwisport, an initiative to get more school-age children involved in organized sport. This study analyses the impact of these changes on regional sports trusts (RSTs), as regional implementers of national sport policy and the Kiwisport initiative. Based on a process of induction from available texts (interviews with chief executives of RSTs and both public/nonpublic documents), three emerging challenges are presented and discussed. The first concerns how RSTs can fulfil Kiwisport's promises of minimal bureaucracy in the light of the limited capacities of community organizations and increasing demands from SPARC for evaluation. The second surrounds the difficulty in reconciling Kiwisport's allowance for greater RST discretion/autonomy with the demands for integrated national–regional delivery. The third challenge is with regard to creating sustainable community initiatives under conditions of depleting resources and shifting policy priorities. Findings raise fundamental questions as to how and to what extent RSTs should realign their organizations to meet central government objectives.