Aid and sport: it's a no-brainer for Australia

Not only can it work in such zones, sport as a participatory aid platform at the grassroots level can engender fun, mutual respect, long lasting ties, memorable relationships and more, in the noble spirit of sporting endeavour. It's soft diplomacy par excellence.

Australia's DFAT has a small sport for development program across the Asia Pacific, with some $49 million funded for 2015-16. It is unclear whether this program is to be bolstered or even continued in the wake of the $224 million cuts in aid funding announced in the most recent Federal Budget (The ALP has said it will reverse the cuts if in government).

Let's return to Indonesia and consider football (soccer), for instance.

According to FIFA, there are over 7 million registered and unregistered football players in Indonesia, making it the seventh largest football playing country in the world and the largest footballing nation in the Islamic world.

It is the country's major spectator sport, attracting a majority of young, poor, urban males. The role of women tends to be highly gender stereotyped and violence amongst male fan groups is relatively common.

This presents opportunities for aid programs. Well structured gender equality, anti-violence and anti-radicalisation aid initiatives using football at the grassroots level as the vehicle would be likely to produce results across most aid measurement paradigms.

Our football program among Rohingya refugees in Malaysia for instance is a partner in the Sustainable Development Goals, with a formal connection to 6 of the 17 global aims.

For Australian aid, the opportunities are particularly clear.

Given our country's recent regional soccer successes and good international standing in the game, Australian soccer has enormous credibility across Asia. There are also great role models to draw upon, such as Western Australian former Indonesian Super League star Robbie Gaspar and current Socceroos star Massimo Luongo – who has Indonesian heritage - as well as potential sponsors and funding bodies to whom to appeal for support.

A-League clubs might also scout Indonesian players to bolster the game there and also to generate ties between the two nations via mutual interests in between the white lines. Brisbane Roar, owned by Indonesian business interests, seems an obvious home for the first major Indonesian A-League star.

Further ins regarding aid are presented in areas to interest business too. Areas of management, governance and infrastructure in football and in other sports are sorely lacking in Indonesia.

Anti-corruption structures and consulting in relation to sports administration are also areas of need.