Impact case study database

F4P has stimulated partnerships for the delivery of its research-informed values-based methodology to build peace and address division in national settings across four continents and in an expanding range of sports and cultural practices beyond (association) football. Since 2014, established F4P partnerships in Israel, Northern Ireland and South Africa have embedded the methodology and delivery model in community, sporting and educational settings to address division, inequality and injustice. New partnerships in the conflict-affected countries of South Korea, The Gambia, and Colombia have been developed with established bodies (South Korea), and through the creation of new NGOs (The Gambia, Colombia). Working from the grass roots with partners from the private, public and voluntary sectors, F4P supports the adoption of the methodology and delivery model by agencies and institutions. This approach generates sustainable processes and a viable basis for continuity and long-term action that are required to heal social divisions in unequal and unjust societies.

4.1 Building inclusion across communities through F4P in conflict-affected societies: The Gambia, Colombia, South Korea

In The Gambia the F4P delivery model, initially implemented in 4 villages in December 2013 and led by UoB-trained coaches, was formally adopted through the registration of a non-profit, non-governmental organisation F4PGambia (F4PG) in March 2019. This was facilitated by UoB researchers under the lead of Carter, Director of Fooball4Peace. Initial initiatives were in villages characterised by latent ethnic conflict. In Kartong, historical conflicts stemmed from dominant Mandinka leadership, and lack of inclusion of other ethnic groups. In December 2013 6 UoB coaches ran a F4P programme in Kartong, working with 146 children in football, rugby, cricket and netball. The UoB then partnered with the Sandele Foundation to expand the initiatives, introducing F4P’s values-based methodology across communities and schools. As a result, over 100 Gambian coaches were trained using F4P methodology and more than 1,000 children have received coaching using the F4P delivery model. In 2016 the founders of the Sandele Foundation observed: ‘ student coaches work collaboratively with Gambian trainee coaches and […] F4P Gambian coaches will contribute towards the training of young learners causing a ripple effect reaching far beyond sport’ [Source 5.1]. This has succeeded in bringing together youth from different communities and ethnic groups, giving leadership roles to men and women from previously marginalised ethnic groups, thus challenging the assumed power of the Mandinka. F4PGambia has introduced values-based coaching to ten schools, organising monthly training sessions and running annual inter-house events for the schools. The F4P values-based delivery model and methodology has been introduced into four communities, where F4P projects have ‘ lessened cultural tensions between sub-sections of a community’. The NGO F4PG credits UoB with enabling people within and across communities to live peaceably [5.2]. The NGO has also brought workers from different environments together for annual celebration of May Day sport; facilitated an annual academy tournament in Kombo South, in 2018; introduced training camps for international schools, 2019; and filled leadership roles on sport committees of communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic F4PG liaised online with F4PKorea to share strategy and development plans. It has also completed a UNESCO proposal to extend teaching of F4P values to 20 further schools through the formation of UNESCO clubs based upon Brighton F4P initiatives in the schools. Discussions have taken place in 2020 with The Gambia West Coast Region Football Academy Association, on the wider adoption of the F4P delivery model [5.2].

In Colombia, F4P training began in 2018 following an invitation from Fundación Buen Punto (FBP) to form a partnership based on the success of F4P research. With an extensive gang culture in the communities within its region the core mission of FBP is to ‘ combat the inequalities of social class and race’. FBP seeks to work through rugby, surfing and volleyball in Bogota’s metropolitan municipality of Mosquera and the coastal Chocó region to build stakeholder capacity for developing more socially just forms of inclusion [5.3]. In May 2018, F4P trained 18 Colombian professionals from a range of social service providers, local government agencies, and sport-related grassroots organisations, in F4P’s specialized values-based Rugby4Peace programme. The UoB initiative was essential in building FBP’s capacity to deliver training to 75 teachers, social workers, and coaches working for the Instituto Regional de Deporte y Recreación, the government agency responsible for delivery of sport and recreation in the Bogotá Federal District [5.4]. FBP has also developed and delivered a training programme in 3 communities along the Chocó coast for surf clubs using F4P’s methodology. Across these programmes this pedagogy has been used to reach 1,800 children. The values have been key to the programme with success measured against those values using a range of evaluation methods. It has transformed the life of some of those children who may otherwise become entangled in the gang culture that pervades. One child participant, asked what it brings, replied ‘ it gives me strength’ [5.3]. The training has enabled FBP to obtain international recognition via an award given by Peace and Sport in Rhodes in 2018 [5.4].

The F4P delivery model was first adopted by the Korean Sharing Movement (KSM) in association with Football4Peace Korea (F4PK) in September 2013. KSM is a national peace-building NGO engaging in humanitarian development in North Korea, thereby bringing together people with conflict-based differences and stimulating inter-cultural understanding across the Korean Peninsula. F4PK’s work in peace education with children aged 9-13 has been pioneering in devising a new peace-oriented discourse for sport challenging nationalism and inter-Korean rivalry long associated with sport. Supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s commitment of KRW128,400,000 (GBP86,718) between 2015 and 2020 for what the city recognised as a public beneficial activity project, F4PK has run annual coaching camps and since 2019 a university student coach development programme, using the F4P coaching methodology, training 235 coaches to date. In 2018, female coaches outnumbered male coaches for the first time (27 out of 51) in the annual training programme - a trend repeated at the annual coach training in 2019 and in the university student coach development programme in 2020. School-partnered F4PK projects have run in cities beyond Seoul including Suwon, Daegu, Dongtan and Pyongtaek. A total of 753 children have participated in F4PK programmes since 2013 [5.5]. F4PK has also undertaken new projects in light of COVID-based restrictions. These include: expanding the UoB's coaching manual to include detailed game lesson plans with step-by-step operating instructions and specimen values-related questions; an online conference between F4P projects based in Colombia, Ireland, The Gambia and Israel, for Koreans to learn from the experience of grassroots peacebuilding programmes in other conflict-affected societies (October 2020); and development of a values-related peace education video provided to schools as a teaching aid for remote learning [5.5].

4.2 Embedding the F4P model across divided societies: Israel, Northern Ireland

The F4P delivery model in the Israeli Sports Authority’s Sport4Life programme, initially set up in 2013, was officially recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Sport in May 2019. Since 2014, 50 communities have participated in F4P/Sport4Life. In 2017 the Ministry’s former Deputy Director/Sport Authority Director said of F4P/Sport4Life: ‘the experience learnt from the project is that sport can serve as a wonderful tool to enhance social, sport and cultural relationships between Jewish and Arab communities focusing on the children, the next generation who will have to live together in years to come’; Ministry and Sport Authority Directors supported the project ‘along the duration’ of the work, including financing of USD100,000 annually [5.6].

The F4P methodology and delivery model established in 2007 has since 2014 achieved cross-community bridge-building throughout Northern Ireland (NI) and in the Republic of Ireland. The Director of Football at the Irish Football Association (IFA) recognises the values-based model of coaching of F4P as ‘ unique in how it uses sport to build trust and respect. At the Irish FA we have embedded the F4P philosophy into our Football For All work at grassroots level to try to help create a fun, safe and inclusive culture. Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided place but we feel multisport programmes like our Sport Uniting Communities programme which have values-based based coaching pillars can make a meaningful difference’ and are ‘great examples of how we use values-based coaching to promote peace and reconciliation’ [5.7]. The F4P methodology underpins 100 annual community football camps and is assimilated into joint Sport4Peace days with the Gaelic Athletic Association and Rugby. Regional Grassroots Football Officers in the IFA deliver F4P training rooted in F4P principles to clubs and community groups in areas of NI and surrounding areas including in the Republic of Ireland, so, as one officer states, contributing to ‘ community cohesion which is vital’ in challenging sectarianism [5.7].

4.3 Informing curriculum development for physical education trainees in South Africa

Since 2013/14 the University of Johannesburg (UoJ) has integrated elements of the F4P delivery model into its Physical Education (PE) programme, developing values-based sport education for pupils from all sectors of the population in a very unequal society. The UoJ coaching manuals draw upon the F4P methodology to promote equality of access to sporting activities. The manuals have been made available to multiple stakeholders, including through the UoJ’s Global Master’s programme which delivers sessions to students from Tsukuba University, Japan, and the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. Global Master’s students have provided training in F4P coaching principles to personnel from the NGO Sportstek in Geluksburg South Africa, and these coaches, implementing principles of UoJ’s Life Orientation/Physical Education programme, provided activities to over 1,000 learners in local community schools. The UoJ has made its manuals available as an open source for physical education teachers in a training programme supported by the South Africa Department of Basic Education, and to 104 members of the Sport for Social Change Network (South Africa). In the manuals F4P’s focus on the ‘teaching moment’ is paramount in addressing developmental goals and teaching specific life skills and values [5.8].

4.4 Informing international peace-building policy discourse

In June 2018, as part of the preparations for the 73^rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sugden presented at an expert group meeting and inter-agency dialogue organized by the UN’s Division for Inclusive Social Development, presenting core arguments on contexts and conditions underlying peace-building in divided societies (from Sugden and Tomlinson’s 2018 book on F4P ( Sport and Peace-Building in Divided Societies: Playing with Enemies). The event – ‘Strengthening the Global Framework for Leveraging Sport for Development and Peace’ [5.9] – was cited in a report of the same name [5.9] reflecting ‘the deliberations and recommendations’ of the expert group meeting. The report was accepted at the UN’s 73^rd Assembly as a basis for updating its Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace.

UoB research provides evidence for best practice in preparing for athletic competition in environmentally challenging circumstances with effects reaching across the institutional structures, management and support for athletes competing in global sporting events. The research has provided strategies that put UoB’s scientific evidence at the forefront of changes in decision-making and policy implementation delivering improved sporting environments that protect Paralympians, Olympians and other athletes in optimising sporting performance in differing conditions and maintaining the integrity of fair athletic competition.

4.1 International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC): effecting change from within

Webborn’s research and expertise have framed and changed the research and policy agendas of the IPC and contributed to IOC consensus statements, delivering, in the words of the IOC Medical and Scientific Director, ‘ extensive and deep impact upon the evidence base that has informed decisions and strategies affecting IPC and IOC practices and policies’ [Source 5.1]. At the IPC, Webborn, recognised by the IPC President as ‘ one of the world’s leading research scholars in the science and medicine of Para athlete sport’, has delivered research contributions that have been significant ‘ in meeting our primary goal of protecting the health of the athlete’ [5.2]. A long-standing member of the IPC medical committee, Webborn has led global responses to critical issues of safety in high-performance sport and competition. In particular, Webborn’s research has ‘put in place systematic programs of longitudinal data collection to indicate specific threats and dangers to the health of the Para athlete’ [5.2]. In the IPC’s record of research publications on IPC Injury and Illness Surveys (updated June 2019), Webborn is an author on 18 of the 19 publications [5.2]. The IPC Medical Code pledges to protect and promote athlete health during training as well as in competition, its priorities including development of protocols for medical care at events, guidelines on periodic health evaluation for both athletes and officials, and advancement of health and wellbeing research. The IPC President states: ‘ Professor Webborn’s research expertise has contributed to the IPC responses to all of these priorities’ [5.2]. His research has produced evidence empowering the medical and ethical committees of the IPC in its policy-making. Athlete safety, from the perspective of the individual athlete and the competitive environment, has been enhanced, through ‘ changes to guidelines thereby creating safer sites and environment’ [5.2]. At the IOC, leading sessions of the Advanced Team Physician courses, Webborn has demonstrated how his research-informed practice combines a scientific and professional contribution that has ‘ sought consistently to educate, persuade and change for the better … in an incremental process of evidence-based analysis and reform’ [5. 1]. Working from within the IPC and the IOC, Webborn has generated research studies and findings that determine a process delivering change that protects the health of Para and other athletes.

4.2 Improving the safety of the Para athlete environment

In collaboration with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Webborn has, since 2002, initiated a major systematic data collection programme that includes analyses of injury and illnesses in para athletes with the research identifying a worrying trend of increased acute Alpine skiing injuries. This accumulated data from sub-analyses has led to evidence-based recommendations for changes that address potential risk factors to improve training and performance conditions. These were implemented by the IPC in collaboration with the World Para Alpine Skiing management in 2018 [5.2]. Changes included: changes in course design, settings, start times to optimise environmental factors, and race safety guidelines implemented in conjunction with technical officials [5.3]. UoB’s research has enabled changes in the practices of the International Blind Sport Federation (IBSA), designed to reduce injury and illness among para athletes. Data on head injuries in VI five-a-side football have generated improved surveillance of and reporting on head injuries and concussion, with the introduction of more effective headgear and reinforcement of existing regulations [5.2].

4.3 Shaping heat strategy for athlete safety

National sporting bodies in Brazil and the UK have adopted heat-related principles and practices as a result of research led by Watt, Maxwell and Hayes, changing how heat is addressed in the planning and staging of Olympic events and other international sport competitions. Brighton research was utilised by Brazil’s National Olympic Committee to ‘ help overcome the issues around exercise in the heat and the effects of exercise in such conditions on fatigue and performance impairment’, for all of Brazil’s athletes competing across ‘ 28 modalities’ (all Olympic disciplines) at the Rio 2016 Olympics [5.4]. In the multi-sport event Modern Pentathlon, UoB’s research and knowledge ‘ were paramount to establish training and competition strategies related to the fatigue aspect in the heat, especially linked to ammonia metabolism’ [5.5]. These strategies were also employed at the Military World Games (South Korea 2015 and China 2019) and the Pan American Games (Canada 2015 and Peru 2019). National bodies, including Team GB and English Rugby Union, have used UoB’s evidence and research-based preparation and education packages [5.6, 5.7]. In the lead up to Tokyo 2020 UoB signed an MOU with the English Institute of Sport (EIS) to develop the ‘Tokyo 2020 Heat Resource Pack’, designed to protect the health of athletes in competition. This has contributed to the development of the EIS heat optimisation strategy, providing preparatory procedures for the 2020/21 Olympic and Paralympic Games [5.8]. In February 2019 the British Olympic Association’s Deputy Chef de Mission (Performance, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games) approached the EEL team: ‘ we knew of the comprehensive 87-page resource Maxwell and his team had produced for the EIS and wanted to use this as an evidence-based foundation for all sports to use and develop for their individual needs, especially for those who may not have bespoke funding support’ [5.6]. The UoB ‘ research and expertise has been particularly valuable in relation to the introduction of alternative heat acclimation approaches to fit around training commitments’, helping ‘ our practitioners to provide more rigorous and individualised heat alleviation methods to their teams’ [5.6]. As the Team GB Deputy Chef de Mission observes: ‘ crucially, we have been able to trial many of these methods and protocols both in the UK [and at] our pre-Games training base in the city of Yokohama, to enable us to best certify practical application and individualised benefits in readiness for the Games’ [5.6].

The UoB team also presented evidence-based advice to Team GB doctors and coaches relating to their own health, establishing guidelines for the most effective strategies for working safely in the heat for both athletes and their support teams [5.6]. UoB research also provided research-led resources and expertise for England Rugby (ER) on how to deal with heat during the Rugby World Cup event in Japan (2019). Aware of UoB’s research into heat acclimation, ER approached the UoB team in 2018 and the team’s ‘ knowhow and scientific rigour’ proved ‘ extremely valuable in its preparation for participation and competition’ at the event [5.7]. In its 24 recommendations in response to the 5 central elements of the ER draft heat acclimation strategy, the UoB research was a ‘ major contribution to the confirmation of the strategy’, and ‘ allowed us to develop a potent heat preparation plan delivered over an optimal timeline comprising a bespoke individual approach using practical heat preparation methods … the guidance adopted also reduced the chances of an exertional heat-related illness within the squad’ [5.7].

4.4 Protecting integrity and fairness of Para athlete competition

Pioneering studies led by Webborn identified a lower threshold for detecting boosting (the deliberate induction of autonomic dysflexia), producing a subsequent drop in offenders among Para athletes. Research highlighting the ethical and medical aspects of ‘boosting’ resulted in a Boosting Testing Programme launched in 2008 by the IPC medical commission including Webborn. The collection of data over an 8-year period allowed a detailed analysis of the variation in blood pressure in athletes prior to racing. There appeared to be a small group of athletes who had readings at a dangerous level above 180 mmHg at first reading but came below the threshold on 2^nd testing, who were suspected of intentional induction. Analysis carried out at the UoB proposed that the threshold should be reduced to 160 mmHg. This recommendation was accepted by the IPC Governing Board as important for fair competition and led the IPC to change the regulations with regard to boosting in April 2016 [5.9]. Webborn’s research has ‘ led to changes in relation to acceptable, lower levels of blood-pressure threshold … producing a decrease in offenders and avoiding catastrophic effects for Para athletes’ [5.1]. Following the reduced level, as the IPC President confirms, such effects have been eliminated by the creation of a ‘ deterrent effect’ [5.2], with no athletes exceeding 180 mmHg since the introduction of the lower level. Research delivering these anti-boosting procedures combines ‘ the medical science with beneficial health, and ethical, outcomes’ [5.1], thus protecting both the health of the athlete and the basis of fair sporting competition.

UoB’s research has addressed the urgent needs for more effective sustainable tourism development interventions in Africa and Europe. The research has resulted in improved benefits for local communities and better industry performance by devising responses to disease-induced crisis, shaping International Development Organisations’ (IDOs) sustainable tourism initiatives, changing tourism sector narratives, transforming tourism policy, developing workforce capacity, engaging low-income communities and advancing sustainable tourism practices in the private and third sectors. Through micro and macro scale interventions using P2P and RSA at local, national and continental level across Africa and Europe, research has led to more stable, higher-yielding, responsible and sustainable forms of tourism.

4.1 Devising policy and industry responses to disease-induced crisis

UoB’s research contributed to decision-making, partnerships and interventions in response to crisis by IDOs, National Governments, Tourism Boards, Regional Organisations, and private and third sector operators. As a direct result of Novelli and Jones’ 2014-2016 research on the Ebola-induced tourism crisis, the Gambia Ministry of Tourism and Culture established new crisis management procedures and a crisis fund and the Gambia Chamber of Commerce introduced novel crisis management procedures and communication strategies employing internet and social media platforms [Source 5.1]. In March 2020, Novelli was invited by the CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority to co-create an action-oriented task force on COVID-19, which became the Building Bridges for Sustainable Tourism in Africa (BBSTA) initiative. BBSTA advocates for proactive collaborations to address the COVID-19-induced tourism crisis at continental level. It led to an unprecedented collaboration between 40 key private tourism stakeholders and 30 CEOs of African Tourism Authorities, resulting in the identification of an agreed COVID-19 recovery agenda based on 4 specific priorities: Digitization; Regional collaboration; Research & Training; Advocacy and PR [5.2, 5.3]. Emerging from this, Novelli’s research informed the first ever African Tourism Authorities/Board CEO Forum held on the 7^th June 2020 and the subsequent UNWTO Brand Africa virtual forum establishing a path towards tourism recovery based on Positive stories from the African continent and aimed at furthering UNWTO interventions at continental level [5.2]. BBSTA actions based on Novelli’s research led to the establishment and delivery of the Responding to COVID-19 - SME Stabilisation and Acceleration programme of research and capacity building in Kenya by Jones and Novelli, in collaboration with the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda (STTA), between May and September 2020. The programme provided capacity building training for 177 SME members of the Tour Operators Society of Kenya (TOSK) on market access, crisis communication, crisis responses, and techniques for resilience building. As a result, Kenyan SMEs are now able to access economic stimulus packages, TOSK received full registration status as an industry membership association from the State Department for Tourism in Kenya (June 2020) and was invited to contribute to the national taskforce on COVID-19 protocols [5.2; 5.3, 5.4].

4.2 Shaping tourism narratives and policy at global, national and local levels

Novelli’s P2P approach has shifted wider tourism sector narratives internationally towards achieving UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with impactful interventions at global, national and local levels. In 2016, the transformative value of the P2P approach, and its ability to improve socio-economic benefits for host communities were acknowledged as tourism best practice for SDG4: Education by the UNWTO in their report on The Power of Transformative Tourism [5.5]. Following from this, in 2017, Tourism Watch, which is a policy desk at NGO Bread for the World, invited Novelli as sole academic expert to co-construct the Berlin Declaration on Transforming Tourism with representatives from 30 civil society organisations from 19 countries. The declaration, available in 6 languages and endorsed by 60 global stakeholders, advocates a narrative for a fairer global tourism sector and ‘ actions from the international community to transform tourism’ [5.6].

UoB’s research also contributed to IDO and government policy implementation and decision-making in Africa and Europe. In 2015, the World Bank and Gambia Ministry of Finance commissioned Novelli to complete an evaluation study of the World Bank’s USD3,000,000 investment to increase tourism competitiveness and productivity in Gambia. This study informed the World Bank’s institutional project monitoring and evaluation phase, contributing to the successful completion of their interventions in Gambia [5.7]. Similarly, in Namibia, Novelli led on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) /Abt Associates evaluation study (2019), shaping the MCC project evaluation phase, contributing critical new insights into the impact of their intervention and providing Namibian tourism sector’s stakeholders with guidance on how to increase the success of future IDOs’ intervention [5.9]. In Europe, Travel Foundation funded research undertaken by Pantelidis and Jones in 2014 has informed the development of new industry policies, strategies and practices encouraging increased visitor spend outside all-inclusive hotels in Paphos (Cyprus), addressing the negative financial impacts of all-inclusive hotels on local business. The study helped over 50% of all-inclusive hotels reshape their customers’ communication strategies and their employees’ training, by increasing knowledge about specific destination offerings [5.10, 5.11]. In 2019, Novelli contributed to the study commissioned by the European Parliament (EP) - Transport and Tourism Committee on the impact of overtourism in the EU, which informed the EP Motion and Adopted Resolutions [points D, 20 and 31 Motion and points C, 38, 40 of Adopted Resolution 5.12]. Arising from this EP study, in 2019 Novelli was appointed by Airbnb to lead on Airbnb research aimed at identifying community-informed best practices to shape the first Airbnb UK national policy for registration of short-let rental (SLR) properties. Novelli advised on the development of an inclusive and accessible data collection process, implemented in collaboration with research partner BritainThinks, which included six roundtables across the UK, 18 interviews and an online survey. The research informed an Airbnb policy paper on SLR market regulation with recommendations to the UK Government which will be launched on the 14^th June 2021 [5.13].

4.3 Building African destination capacity, improving workforce skills and local livelihoods

Over a seven-year period, Novelli’s commissioned research underpinned investment and workforce skills capacity-building in Namibia, Gambia and Ghana. In 2013, the Gambian Tourism and Hospitality Institute (GTHI) was inaugurated following Novelli’s World Bank commissioned research into the strategic planning of vocational education and workforce development. Since November 2013, Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma level courses, delivered in line with Novelli’s recommendations, have been provided by the GTHI, with 2,711 students graduating to date. The initial GTHI target to train an average of 200 school leavers per year has been exceeded on average by 187 graduates per year, increasing the level of professionally trained workforce and employability in the sector [5.8]. Furthermore, The Gambia’s 2015 - 2020 Tourism Culture and Hospitality Strategy cites Novelli’s 2012 train-the-trainers programme and report as a resource to be used by The Gambia Tourism Board as a Service Quality and Service Standards Manual [5.1, 5.14]. The implementation of Novelli’s recommendations has led to improved service and productivity across hospitality establishments, with the Gambia Hotel Association providing regular capacity building training and on-the job follow-up training within 150 hotels [5.1]. Between 2014-2015, a new train-the-trainer scheme on service standards was rolled out nationwide by the Namibia Tourism Board utilising materials produced by UoB’s researchers, providing training to over 500 tourism stakeholders and leading to improved service standards across Namibia and the establishment of a new tour guides’ national training qualification [5.3, 5.9]. In 2018, the World Bank commissioned Novelli to produce research to improve Ghana’s national tourism and hospitality vocational skills’ training systems. Novelli’s research and strategic recommendations influenced the World Bank’s decision to allocate USD11,000,000 to the Ghana Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture. Using these funds, a National Training Policy was delivered and approved by Cabinet in March 2020 and a public procurement process for the establishment of a new Tourism and Hospitality National Training Institute was launched [5.2, 5.7].

4.4 Advancing sustainable tourism practices and engaging low-income communities in Africa

By 2020, in Gambia, 60 local community members (10 participants each year, over a 6-year period) have benefited from Novelli’s P2P Capacity Building Initiative working with the Sandele Foundation. Through product development training, community members acquired new knowledge, skills and values associated with sustainable tourism business planning, conservation and community development, leading to the establishment of 16 micro-initiatives and entrepreneurial start-ups by members of low-income communities [5.15, 5.16]. A key outcome of the P2P was the establishment of the first ever community-based turtle conservation project in the country - ‘Turtle SOS The Gambia’, to respond to devastating turtle poaching activities. The project resulted in direct paid employment to 7 conservationists (of which 2 former poachers turned conservationists) and engaged between 10 and 30 regular local volunteers [5.15]. Turtle SOS has delivered educational programmes in 7 schools in 5 low-income coastal communities, reaching approximately 5,000 3-14 year old children and their families, engaging the wider community through film showings and presentations. In November 2015, Novelli and Jones contributed to the strategic and practical development of the new Turtle Conservation and Interpretation Centre at Sandele, offering a unique small scale, but high-yield tourism attraction in the locality, with an average of 200 visitors per year [5.15, 5.16]. Since 2018, Novelli and Jones have implemented the P2P approach in Ghana, through a collaboration with globally-renowned artist Serge Clottey, La360 community-based arts festival team and a local youth group. This P2P intervention improved community living standards in the low-income coastal neighbourhood of La (Labadi) in Accra. It stimulated change in community members’ attitudes from passive bystanders witnessing the degradation of their urban and ocean environments, to active custodians of these environments. Through UoB led capacity-building workshops 450 community members were incentivised to engage in beach and neighbourhood clean-up exercises, leading to changes in community understandings of the need for environmental sanitation and waste management. They also gained new understandings of how members can benefit from host-guest encounters. The establishment of a La-Lab as an incubator for 20 innovative and sustainable tourism enterprises was agreed with local stakeholders, prior to the COVID-19’s global lockdown [5.2; 5.3]. In 2018, in recognition of her work on sustainable tourism in 20 African destinations, Novelli received the Africa Tourism Leadership Special Award for Contribution and Impact to Sustainable Tourism development in Africa [5.3].