by Djibril Diallo – SANF 07 No 32
The African Union is helping to get the ball rolling for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa by rallying countries across the continent to use football’s tremendous appeal for a broad range of development and peace activities through the International Year of African Football 2007 (IYoAF) and the World Cup Legacy Programme.
The AU is holding its first ever conference of Ministers of Sport on 4-8 June in Addis Ababa to generate involvement in these World Cup initiatives in Africa’s 53 countries, and more broadly for using the power of sport to advance education and health, improve livelihoods, increases opportunities for women and girls, and encourage peace-building.
The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), the South Africa Local Organizing Committee for the World Cup, the Governments of South Africa and Ethiopia, and the African Football Confederation (CAF) are key partners for the initiatives.
FIFA, led by President Sepp Blatter, is helping to ensure that the entire continent benefits from the World Cup through its “Win in Africa with Africa” initiative, which is also the World Cup slogan.
The United Nations is also part of the team. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, “Sport is increasingly recognized as an important tool in helping the United Nations to achieve its objectives, in particular the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs].
“By including sport in development and peace programmes in a more systematic way, the United Nations can make full use of this cost-efficient tool to help us create a better world.”
Under the leadership of Mr. Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace and former President of Switzerland, the UN is embarking on a new phase of mainstreaming sport for development and peace, to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.
More than 30 African countries undertook initiatives in conjunction with the International Year of Sport and Physical Activity 2005, which was guided by Mr. Ogi. The UN will cooperate with governments and other partners to build on these for IYoAF 2007 and the World Cup Legacy Programme.
Botswana is pursuing a “Sport for All” initiative to create an environment in which all citizens can participate in sports for fun, health, fitness or recreation, contributing to the country’s long-term development strategy.
In Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa announced that physical education would re-introduced into the national school curriculum.
Mauritius is building a sport infrastructure to democratize and enhance the practice of sport, including in rural and deprived areas.
South Africa built has more than 100 sports facilities and boosted the budget for sports projects by nearly 40 per cent in 2006. South Africa’s LoveLife Games involve more than 400,000 youth and 11,000 schools to promote healthy living and personal achievement.
Ghana is including sport in its national poverty reduction strategy for 2006-2009 due to sport’s significant impact in improving health, education, the environment and promoting job creation. In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade has placed sport and the youth at the centre of his development plan.
Tunisia aims to make physical education compulsory in primary schools by 2009. The Sport for Peace 2005–2010 project in Uganda organized over 80 inter-village sport matches to promote peaceful co-existence and build friendship.
The Sport Ministers meeting in Ethiopia will discuss ways to revive and strengthen the African Women in Sports Association, develop a continental framework on sport policy, initiate campaigns using football to address socio-economic problems and for peace-building.
Other actions planned include an audit on the state of African football to help make the sport a more viable commercial business, and steps to improve good governance and capacity-building.
More broadly, the Ministers will examine ways to foster a culture of peace and solidarity through sport. This will entail developing healthy lifestyles, inclusion of sport and physical education in school curricula, and raising awareness of the dangers of drug abuse in sports.
The conference is expected to be a catalyst for harmonizing sports programmes for the use of sport to promote integration, development and peace.
The UN will undertake an inventory of UN system sport-related activities and how they can support IYoAF and the achievement of the MDGs.
Several UN agencies have partnered with FIFA, including the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, the UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme, and the World Health Programme.
In addition, Ogi has helped to initiate pilot Sport for Peace programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia in cooperation with the governments, UN peace missions and country teams, and other partners.
African delegates to last year’s first UN Global Youth Leadership Summit are ready to support the AU initiatives, and the Summit’s Council of Mentors, chaired by steel industry leader Mohanlal Mittal, encourages such efforts.
Football is far more than a game in Africa and around the world. This is a great opportunity to promote the positive values of fair play, adherence to the rules, teamwork, healthy living, and respect for self and others that are instilled by sport.
With its universal popularity, football can bring people together and is playing a positive role in promoting development and peace.
