Is the Playing Field Level for Stateless Olympiads?

Olympic flag flying outside Eland House in London (CC BY-ND 2.0)

“Do the Olympics highlight “free and fair” competition, or is it just one more scene in which the developing world’s disadvantages are starkly visible?”

This is the question that was on my mind when I watched the Olympic Procession on July 28. Olympiads clad in colorful regalia pranced and strutted beneath their nations’ respective flags. However, there was one group that stood out: the three independent athletes competing under the Olympic flag. At the time, I did not notice the absence of South Sudanese athlete Guor Marial, who could not be in London at the time because of complications due to his lack of a passport.

When I learned of this, it struck me that this is a real disadvantage. Possession of a nationality, a passport and ability to traverse trans-national and international borders are taken for granted by most athletes competing in the Olympics, yet it is a serious consideration for stateless athletes.

The fourth of the 5 “Fundamental Principles of Olympism” (within the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Charter) states that:

“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”

What, then, does this mean for stateless athletes?

South Sudanese marathon runner Guor Marial will be one of 4 independent athletes competing in the Olympics this year. The remaining three, Philippine van Aanholt, Reginald de Windt, and Lee-Marvin Bonevacia, hail from Curaçao, of the former Netherlands Antilles, dissolved in October 2010. (Eight months following its dissolution, during the June 2011 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Committee session, the Netherlands Antilles’ membership on the Committee was withdrawn.)

Competing as an independent athlete means rather than competing under their nation’s flag, they do so under the Olympic flag. Independent athletes fall under three categories that overlap: those who are stateless, those whose nations do not have Olympic Committees, and those who hail from occupied or colonized states. In Guor Marial’s case, it is a combination of the first two, as South Sudan has hundreds of thousands of stateless inhabitants, and does not have an established Olympics Committee.

In January 2011, the people of South Sudan- at the time, a de facto territory- voted for separation from the Republic of Sudan. Six months later on July 8, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan was an independent state. However, the issue of nationality is still unresolved for many Sudanese and South Sudanese. The April 8, 2012 deadline for residents in southern Sudan to declare their nationality passed, leaving several hundred thousand either stateless or residents of the Republic of Sudan.

This is due, in part, to the August 2011 Sudan Nationality Act passed by the Khartoum government, which declares that Sudanese may have dual citizenship with any state but South Sudan. This is especially salient for youth whose parents are both Sudanese and South Sudanese, as their nationality is based upon the nationality of the parent who holds legal custody.

Guor Marial’s story is one of the complicated ones. Born April 15, 1984 in Panrieng, in what is now South Sudan, he is a survivor of child slavery in Sudan during the Sudanese Civil War, and a former

Work in the Developing World: Outsourcing to Nairobi Slums

Cross-linked with Bertelsmann Stiftung – Future Challenges’ site

In the Lead Article, entitled “Work in the Developing World,” I stressed the need for policy, partnership and cooperation across the private, non-profit, and public sectors to create jobs.

This applies especially to addressing youth unemployment in the developing world, where in the year 2005, Africa’s youth unemployment reached 21 percent, higher than the world average of 14.4 percent and second only to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s 25.6 percent. Furthermore, International Labor Organization (ILO) statistics estimate that young people make up approximately 36.9 percent of the total working-age population.

SAMSource, a U.S.-based non-profit organization is partnering with Techno Brain- a software development company incorporated in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with offices in 11 countries– to launch an initiative to create jobs in data entry, content moderation and other outsourcing jobs to hundreds of Kenyan youth from low-income households. This initiative, according to SAMSource Chief Operating Officer, Chelsea Cooper, aims to address rising unemployment rates among Kenya’s educated youth.

Lakshman Manickam, Director Operations and Human Resource at Techno Brain was quoted as saying, “The project we are in with SAMSource is about creating jobs to the youth from slums around Nairobi. We target those with IT skills that can help us do certain tasks for American companies.” These American employers include government agencies and corporations, including, but not limited to LinkedIn, Intuit, and the U.S. State Department. Additionally, local hospitals will be employing these skilled youth.

Essentially, SAMSource bids for contracts with employers in the U.S.’ private and public sectors, outsourcing data entry, content moderation and verification and other tech-related jobs to their offices in Nairobi, where youth from the city’s slums will be employed. Similarly, the Rockefeller Foundation has invested 35 million shillings (about 415, 500USD) into a project that aims to employ youth in informal settlements in Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.

By funding the digitization of the Ear, Nose and Throat clinics at Kenyatta National Hospital’s four million records and awarding the contract to Techno Brain, the Rockefeller Foundation enabled the employment of 35 youth from Kibera and Mathare. As more hospitals and clinics adopt electronic medical records (EMR), there will be a greater need for skilled, computer literate workers.

As I said in the lead article, “it’s not enough for jobs to be created – they must be the right type of jobs, filled by the right type of workers.” Initiatives like these have great potential, as they match employers with contractors, matching jobs with employees. Beyond macroeconomic policy and labor market intervention, there needs to be multi- and cross-sector cooperation, as economic growth is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for lowering unemployment rates among African youth.