By Tom Simmonds

The idea of Auderes Sport has been influenced by many people. They range from the kids who continue to play football and other sports, barefoot, on dusty pitches in the heat, all over Africa; to the vision, passion and determination of individuals and organizations in the emerging field of Sport for Development; and the potential to harness the influence and power of the corporate world with marketing budgets larger than the GDP of some countries in Africa.

Auderes Sport is a business venture that, in many ways, started when I moved from Birmingham, England, to Moshi, Tanzania at the age of 9. At this time, in the mid 1980s, Moshi was a small, quiet town with not much to interest a 9 year old. Situated in northern Tanzania, and in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, it was where I fell in love with both sport and Africa. I would play football and basketball at every opportunity, and what became apparent to me even then was the void in facilities between the UK and Tanzania. This disparity is something we now feel we can help to address. I continued to return to Africa regularly, more specifically to Zambia, to visit my mother and extended Zambian family.

My participation in sport waned when my children were born, (but not my interest!), so it wasn't until 2009 when I linked up with Sport In Action,a local sports NGO based in Zambia, that I realized there had been little improvement in sports facilities since the 1980s.

It was a simple game of football at the local park in Birmingham that led to our decision to use the best facilities in Africa. The facility my children and I used that day was one I have grown to know well. It is standard court size, suitable for basketball, football or tennis built with heavy-duty galvanized steel. My initial thought was to fund-raise in the UK until we had enough capital to purchase, ship and install this type of facility in Zambia. This would provide Sport In Action with a more structured environment to continue their work within the local communities. Two issues soon became apparent; firstly, a facility of this type and with this standard of build had not been installed in Africa, let alone Zambia. Secondly, it would take lots of fundraising activities to provide just one site. What about the second and the third? How could we scale? Could we establish these spaces in more communities using a charitable model? Making this project self-sustainable with the ability to scale was our challenge.

Our solution was to incorporate sport and social responsibility. Outdoor branding is widely used for advertising products and services in Africa. Today, we see companies such as Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered and Airtel changing the landscape of Lusaka and other African capitals through this advertising medium. As the African economic growth continues, so too do the number of corporations engaging in this emerging market. Our strategy is to capitalize on this growth and the need that these businesses have for new and unique ways to advertise their respective brands.

Our philosophy is simple: to provide high-quality sports arenas for children in Africa funded through advertising. Some people immediately questioned the cost of the arenas but why should we have to compromise when providing sports facilities in Africa? The kids certainly aren't less worthy; their appreciation can at times exceed that of their counterparts in the UK. There are also organisations in Africa that we can work with. I had recently returned from a trip to Zambia and realised that my coaching experience could not match the abilities of the Sport In Action coaches. Whether it was teaching kids to pass a football whilst incorporating HIV AIDs and health awareness messages, or the fact they also incorporated traditional Zambian games, they were clearly adding more value than I could.

There are several factors that help to support our business model. Both western and Africa markets are becoming more competitive. Corporates constantly search for a way to differentiate themselves and as consumers become more socially conscious, initiatives such as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and CSI (Corporate Social Innovation) are becoming more commonplace. At Auderes Sport we are creating a business that not only incorporates social responsibility but also approaches its commercial targets as assertively as its social objectives. Social responsibility is not a department, an individual, a staff retention policy or a fad. It is integral to our success; it is our business. At present, businesses in Africa are spending millions of pounds on visual advertising: billboards, litterbins, and branding of street furniture. Our business strategy is to entice these companies to divert a proportion of their advertising budget to the Auderes arenas. Our aim is to influence the landscape of Africa through sport and a combination of both public and private partnerships.

Tom Simmonds is a founding partner of Auderes Sport, a start-up business based in UK and Zambia. In this article he outlines an 'on-the-ground' perspective of setting up an organisation using the power of sport for development in partnership with commercial enterprise. Tom works in the IT industry for NetApp UK, and lives with his wife and two children in Birmingham, England. He is half Zambian and has grown up in Europe and Africa.