Sport for sustainable development

With its federating, inclusive aspect, sport is mentioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: it contributes to peace and to empowering women and young people, as well as helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in health, education and social cohesion.

Tiphaine CHRISTIAEN

Project Officer,
Sport & Development French Development Agency

Christophe DIAS

Project Officer,
Sport & Development French Development Agency

As host country for the Women’s Football World Cup in 2019, the Rugby World Cup in 2023, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024, France is at the heart of sport diplomacy, which, with its real power to influence, should lead to major benefits, both economic and social, particularly for young people. This schedule forces us to set ambitious sustainable development objectives, in France and also internationally, particularly in Africa, a continent that hosts major international sports events and which has a part in our shared future. In his speech in Ouagadougou in November 2017, President Macron spoke of sport as “a lever for youth and economic and social development in Africa”.

That is why the French Development Agency (AFD) has made sport one of the key lines of its “100% social link” strategy, with a view to developing “sport for all”, by encouraging equal access to doing sport, with particular emphasis on gender equality issues.

“A SPORT EN COMMUN PLATFORM IN 2020”

In February 2018, when the Liberian President George Weah visited France, Emmanuel Macron announced that the AFD “will lead an initiative to mobilise sport stakeholders for sustainable development”. That is the aim of our digital platform “Sport en Commun” (sport in common), which will be launched in September 2020. This platform aims to connect the worlds of sport and development, to make sport a vector for sustainable development. It will provide concrete solutions for project leaders, funders and support structures wishing to implement or support initiatives using sport as a means of achieving the SDGs in Africa. It will represent a tool in support of national policies favouring development through sport. In partnership with key actors in the ecosystem, including Sport and Citizenship and the “Sport Impact Leaders”, athletes engaged in the service of development, it will provide advocacy with the aim of promoting the social impact of sport. In addition, in February 2020 the AFD signed a partnership agreement with Paris 2024 which formalises the link between two organisations that share the conviction that sport is a great force for social and societal change.

Through this commitment, with the AFD’s support, Paris 2024 will be able to extend its legacy and sustainability strategy in every area (education, health, inclusion through sport, gender equality, disability, sport and peace and so on) beyond national frontiers, using concrete initiatives such as :

▪ Financial support from AFD for renovating sport facilities in the framework of the 2022 Summer Youth Olympics in Dakar.
▪ The launch of a programme at the end of 2020 to help athletes with business projects with a social or environmental impact in France and Africa.
▪ A call for microprojects to support initiatives from civil society and the Olympic movement in favour of development through sport on the African continent in 2021.