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The Olympic Family and the United Nations Work together to Combine Sport and Development in the Field Representatives of the National Olympic Committees and United Nations Resident Coordinators to Meet in Geneva on 15 and 16 December Geneva, 14 December 2004––Field representatives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations will be meeting for the first time on 15 and 16 December in Switzerland on the eve of the International Year of Sport and Physical Education, to work together on a series of joint activities aimed at taking up the major development challenges facing the world today. Representatives of the national Olympic committees and United Nations Resident Coordinators from all over the world will be meeting on 15 December in Geneva (at the United Nations) and on 16 December in Lausanne (at the Olympic Museum) for an international seminar on sport for development organized jointly by the IOC, the office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The aim of this innovative workshop is to pool experience on both sides in order to build up new partnerships in developing countries capable of mobilizing the sport movement to make an active contribution to achieving the United Nations' main development and peace objectives, and more specifically the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include combating HIV/AIDS, making serious inroads into poverty, setting up sustainable development by 2015 and, of course, promoting peace. "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals calls for general mobilization, not only on the part of governments but also on the part of civil society––by each one of us," said UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown. "Pooling networks as powerful as those of the Olympic committees and UNDP should generate an extremely positive dynamic for accelerating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals." "Through the values it carries and its ability to bridge social, cultural and religious divides, sport is an essential component of development work required to achieve the MDGs," said Adolf Ogi, former President of the Swiss Confederation, Under-Secretary General and the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace. The fundamental role of sport in development was emphasized by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in 2001 at the time of Mr.Ogi's appointment and the creation of the Office of Sport for Development and Peace. In 2003, UN agencies submitted to the Secretary General a joint report highlighting the potential contribution of sport to the achievement of the MDGs. According to this report, sport, by the values of tolerance and respect that it carries, the benefits for health, education and psychological equilibrium that it provides, and as a fundamental social link making it possible to transcend ethnic divisions, constitutes an innovative and highly effective instrument for promoting development. The report concludes that, for these reasons, sport should be better integrated into development programmes, particularly at the local level, by means of suitable partnerships. "The IOC is more than ever convinced that sport can and should play a positive role as a catalyst in our societies," said Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee. "Physical exercise and sport have a crucial social impact that we cannot ignore and that we must defend. They are contributory factors in social cohesion, tolerance and integration; they are powerful instruments for physical and socio-economic development." Year 2005, in addition to being declared the International Year of Sport and Physical Education by a UN resolution, is also a pivotal year for development, with a busy timetable of major events including the World Forum on Human Development in Paris in January, publication of the Millennium Project report evaluating the resources to be mobilized and indicating the steps to be taken to achieve the MDGs, the G8 Summit in June, and the Summit on implementing the Millennium Declaration on the occasion of the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in September. "Year 2005 is a last-chance year for really setting up the resources that will make it possible to achieve the Millennium Goals worldwide by 2015", said Bruce Jenks, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships. For further information, please contact: * *** * |
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