On the occasion, of the celebration of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2023, President and Founder of Peace and Sport Joël Bouzou will join a conference on the theme “Scoring for People and the Planet”, organized by DISD/UNDESA. He will highlight in his speech the role of sport in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in their social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
The goal of the side-event is to celebrate sport through dialogues on how sport positively impacts the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda by sharing good practices to contribute to the forthcoming SDG summit, which will be convened in September 2023, during the United Nations General Assembly high-level week. To achieve this main goal the event will bring together governments, private sector and civil society to share good practices and make concrete contributions to current policy discourses in view of the forthcoming SDG Summit.
The side-event will take place in a virtual format on the 6 April 2023 from 8am to 9.30 am (New York time). It will start with an introduction by the Division of Inclusive Social Development of the UNDESA and a keynote speaker, followed by panels which will focus on 3 key dimensions of the 2030 Agenda 2030: the social, economic and environmental dimension. Each panel will bring together stakeholders from the public, private and civil society sector. It will end with Q&A and closing remarks.
On April 1st, the association Winds of Change will organize an event in Cyprus, under the motto “Move for Peace”. This event will take place at the Home4Cooperation within the UN Buffer Zone and will include a peaceful, bi-communal run around both sides of the divided capital city.
Guests from both communities, a UN representative, and Winds of Change’s stakeholders will join the event, which will mark the launch of the project and the 10th anniversary of IDSDP. Through #WhiteCard activities, the participants will reaffirm the unifying power of sport and its capacity to foster reconciliation and coexistence.
Winds of Change is a project that aims to give rise to the first bi-communal Cypriot sailing team to sail around the divided island together. The project creates an opportunity for young people from all over the island to come together and join a journey with a common purpose. Winds of Change wants to challenge, empower, and inspire young people to connect, which in turn will contribute to peacebuilding in Cyprus.
In 2019, a Friendly Football Day, organized by Peace and Sport in collaboration with the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, brought together Nea Salamina Football Club and Mağusa Türk Gücü Football Club in a symbolic match in Pyla, on the island of Cyprus, to foster dialogue and cooperation between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities through sport.
The Friendship Games are a flagship event of the 2023 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace celebration. They will take place in Lomé on March 31, under the auspices of the first Olympic medalist in the history of Togo and Champion for Peace Benjamin Boukpeti.
Peace activities through rugby involving nearly 200 beneficiaries of the ALAFIA program and a thematic institutional meeting at the French Institute in Lomé will highlight the actions and progress of the program, and present the role of the stakeholders involved. Organized with the support of the French Embassy in Togo, the conference “Sport, a tool for cohesion and social transformation” will offer a moment of exchange with the Olympic Medalist and Champion for Peace, Benjamin Boukpeti, the Founder and Director of Terres en Mêlées, Pierre Gony, the CEO of Peace and Sport, Jean-Jérôme Perrin-Mortier, the President of Terres en Mêlées Togo, Ouro-Koumoni Mahawiya, and student researchers from the University of Paris Nanterre.
Alafia, which means peace in several west-African dialects, is a program of education for development through rugby, deployed in school and extracurricular time in Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Morocco and Togo. It aims to contribute to the emergence of a generation of educators and young leaders open to the world, capable of using sport to engage in the fields of education and sustainable development in Africa. The implantation of the Alafia program in Togo relies on a partnership with Peace and Sport based on two axes:
– Training of educators based on the Peace and Sport Methodology dedicated to building a culture of peace.
– Evaluating the impact of the Alafia program in partnership with the Institute of Social Sciences of Politics of the University of Paris Nanterre in order to improve the design and implementation of the program.
Pierre Gony, Director of Terres-en-Mêlées, said:
“Since 2015, Terres en Mêlées has been transforming rugby into an educational tool capable of spreading a culture of peace among youth in Togo and Burkina Faso. Through the ALAFIA program and the EDS pedagogy created by Terres en Mêlées and deployed to the educational community, thousands of children are now growing up with the values of peace and citizenship. We are happy to be able to count on our partner Peace and Sport to help us grow and disseminate our program in West Africa and more particularly in Togo during the Friendship Games.”
Jean-Jérôme Perrin Mortier, CEO of Peace and Sport, declared:
“Highlighting initiatives that provide community-based solutions through sport is one of the objectives of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, celebrated every April 6. We are therefore very pleased to join Terres en Mêlées, a member organization of the international coalition ‘Peacemakers Project’, peace educators and beneficiaries to celebrate the progress of the ALAFIA program, a program whose monitoring and evaluation will demonstrate the impact of peace through sport initiatives on the ground.”
Benjamin Boukpeti, Togo’s first ever Olympic Medalist and Champion for Peace, added:
“The support of athletes who are members of the Champions for Peace collective is a central axis of the ‘Peacemakers Project’ implemented by Peace and Sport on three continents in partnership with several field organizations, including Terres en Mêlées. Today, I deeply desire to be more actively involved so that the youth of my country can live in peace and work to do better day after day. This is becoming a little more possible thanks to Peace and Sport and the relevance of the coalitions put in place by the organization.”
This event is aimed to promote a positive relationship with physical activity and meditation, all while helping the attendees from the Malta Girl Guides obtain their “Keep Moving” badge. Apart from being physically active and partaking in various sports disciplines including football, which is usually associated with males, the all female participants are going to get an opportunity to speak with some special guests from the sporting industry, who will share their experience on the journey they had through sport.
Photo: Ms. Charlene Attard, Olympian, and Ms. Karen Heneghan, athlete, with all the participants.
The Residents’ Committee of the Foundation of Monaco at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris (CIUP) organised, in partnership with the residents of the Dutch College, the Hellenic Foundation, the Houses of Cambodia, Korea, Swedish students, students from the Francophonie, and the International House of AgroParisTech (MINA) of the CIUP, a circuit of sporting activities and games to celebrate, for the first time, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace #IDSDP, in the park of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris (CIUP). Ponchao’ and Tagg Ball, Pañuelito, Petanque, Relay, Rope Jumping, and Agility events brought them together on the lawn of the International House of the CIUP!
Ms. Martine GARCIA-MASCARENHAS, Director of the Foundation, and the Residents’ Committee’s sports managers honoured the commitment and actions of this movement for peace through sport and everyone raised a white card in support of Peace and Sport’s viral operation #WhiteCard.
Recent Comments