Sport as Diplomacy & Tool for Peace

Photo Credit: UNOSDP

April 6 is the  International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. Sport in the past and even today has been employed to further nationalism, and perhaps as cover for exclusion and agenda. However, the utility of athletics and sport for good is also being developed. “Sport has established itself as an effective tool for development and peacebuilding. As we are moving to a new set of sustainable development goals for the post-2015 development agenda, we have to make sure that sport keeps playing its beneficial role in it. It has been through systematic cooperation that we have been able to make sport and physical activity accessible and inclusive to millions of people of all ages and abilities worldwide,” said Wilfried Lemke, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace. “Let us work together to make the most use of the great potential that sport has for advancing positive social change all over the world,” says  Lemke.  (Read: “Sports Stars Beyond Caricature to Freedom of Expression.”)

This year’s observation also incorporated another element of digital-diplomacy and the work of diplomat-artists – a video contest developing the theme: “United Action through Sustainable Development for all through Sport.” (See: “Sport for Development & Peace – The UN System in Action.”)

 

About the Author

Diplomat Artist Buzz
Diplomat Artist Buzz
View more posts