National Disability Sport Association (NDSA)

Introduction

The Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) plays duo roles for disability sports, that of a local governing body and that of a National Sport Association (NSA).

Through the years, the SDSC has observed disability sports that have developed their independent set of ‘drivers’ – athletes, volunteers, parents, coaches and others who have been proactive in growing their sport/s and helping more PWD benefit from physical activity or athletes perform better. Some of these groups have matured, working alongside SDSC to develop sound sport plans, structured programmes and strong leadership. The SDSC has thus decided to formally introduce a scheme that recognises and supports such groups as “National Disability Sport Associations (NDSA)” from 2018.

National Disability Sports Association (NDSA)

Framework

The NDSA framework focuses on close SDSC and NDSA collaboration. This is centred on developing a shared vision between SDSC and the NDSA, which is then achieved by developing the NDSA’s capabilities and strategically resourcing the partnership.

NDSAs serve as lead organisations that govern, manage and promote their respective disability sports in Singapore. They are crucial to the local sports scene as they are responsible for developing and growing 3 key areas for their sport/s: technical expertise, sport pathways, and sustainable elite level performance.

NDSAs are defined with the following criteria:

a.   They must be registered with the Registry of Societies (ROS) as Societies or the Accounting and Company Regulatory Authority (ACRA) as Companies Limited by Guarantee locally

b.   They must operate on a not-for-profit basis. Preferably, they should be registered with the Commissioner of Charities, and eventually Institutes of Public Character (IPC)

c.   They must have a mandate from the community involved in their sport/s, i.e. demonstrate that they have at least 20 paying members

d.   They should be governing at least one sport that has been offered in at least three (3) editions in any of the following Major Games

• ASEAN Para Games / ASEAN Deaf Games
• Asian Youth Para Games
• Asian Para Games / Asian Deaf Games
• Commonwealth Games
• Paralympic Games / Deaflympic Games
  
  

e.   They must be affiliated, in good standing, to the following bodies of their sport/s, where applicable:

• SportSG-recognised National Sports Association (NSA)
• ASEAN Federation
• Asian Federation
• International Federation

NDSAs play the important roles of:

a.   Developing and growing their sport/s and beneficiaries at community, developmental and elite levels

b.   Putting a long-term athlete development framework in place

c.   Developing coaches and technical officials

d.   Developing, implementing and evaluating an annual programme that includes at least one national championship

e.   Ratifying competition or game results and maintaining a list of national records

f.   Selecting and nominating athletes to represent Singapore in international competitions and major games; and

g.   Conducting all matters of the sport/s with good governance, transparency, democracy, fairness and non-discrimination

More information

For more information, please refer to the NDSA Handbook here