Football For All in Vietnam - The challenges of an exit: A qualitative study of how seven Sport for Development professionals experienced an exit strategy

Abstract

This research paper explores the challenges a Vietnamese sport for development organization faced when its biggest funder withdrew its support. Although SDP stakeholders often call for funder independency and sustainable SDP activities, little research has been done on SDP organizations where its most significant donor gradually reduces the economic support to an SDP organization, aiming at a sustainable and independent outcome for both the organization and the activities. Therefore, the research question for this paper is: “What are the challenges facing a sport for development project, during and after a handover period, as the organization’s major donor gradually withdraws its funding?”

This study adhered to a constructionist epistemology and was conducted in an ethnographic manner. The methods chosen to answer the research question was participant observation and semi-structured interviews. For the participant observation, the researcher traveled to Vietnam and worked for the SDP organization in question as a volunteer for five months, from September 2018 to March 2019. The semi structured interviews were conducted in February 2019, two months after the SDP organizations handover period concluded. The sample for the semi-structured interviewed consisted of seven individuals with strong attachment to the SDP organization: the director, the vice-director, the head of human relations, the head of the technical department, the head of the communications department, the head of the program department, and the former director and founder of the organization. The six former interviewees were native Vietnamese, while the former director was a Norwegian, based in Vietnam.

The central findings show that the organization faced challenges that could be put in four major categories: 1) Organizational restructuring, 2) the sustainability of the grassroots level activities, 3) the establishment of a commercial entity, 4) the replication of the organizations model on a national scale.

During the handover period, the organization faced shortcomings in human and financial capacity, but also experienced an increased workload, to cope with the added demands of a handover process.