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The purpose of this chapter is to explore the utility of a postcolonial feminist girlhood studies approach to investigate, and better understand, how corporate-funded sport, gender and development (SGD) programs that adhere to the “Girl Effect” mantra take up: (1) the alleged benefits of SGD programming; (2) its (embodied) neoliberal tendencies; and (3) issues around gender and cultural difference in North-South aid relations.

This study uses qualitative methods, including 35 semi-structured interviews with staff members and young women, in order to investigate how a SGD program in Eastern Uganda that is funded by a Sport Transnational Corporation (STNC) and an International NGO used martial arts to build girls’ self-defense skills and address gender-based, sexual, and domestic violence.

Three major findings are revealed, including: (1) the martial arts program improved young women’s confidence levels, physical fitness, leadership capabilities, and social networks; (2) Western donors tended to use and frame sport (i.e., martial arts) as paramount for educating and training Ugandan young women to be (neoliberal) global “girl” citizens; and (3) issues of representation, racialized subjectivity, and cultural difference in SGD adversely influenced aid relations.

Evidence from this chapter suggests that it is crucial to question how global neoliberal development, as promoted via SGD practices, is not only racialized and classed, but also distinctly gendered. Infusing girlhood studies with a postcolonial feminist perspective enables a deconstruction, and attendance to, the ways in which colonial legacies, neoliberal processes, and the political resistance of development practices are taken up, and impelled by, SGD programs.

To critically consider the role that environmental sustainability plays in Sport for Development and Peace's (SDP) conceptualization of development in Indigenous communities in Canada. To do this, the chapter presents a critical analysis of one of the most prominent SDP organizations in Canada, Right To Play (RTP), and its relationship with extractives companies that support RTP initiatives.

In the first part of the chapter, we discuss the role of environmental sustainability in SDP approaches around the globe. In the second part, a textual analysis of RTP's documents is conducted to consider how environmental sustainability plays a role in its promotion of development in Indigenous communities throughout Canada.

Key findings of the research are presented and critically analyzed. The textual analysis of RTP documents shows that there is currently little consideration of environmental sustainability in the promotion and description of RTP's programs that operate in Indigenous communities in Canada. In addition, RTP's connections to extractives companies raise questions about the potential future directions.

The limitations of a textual analysis approach are discussed and the need for future research in this area is outlined with specific reference to how SDP programs might promote environmental sustainability.