Programme Director
Chair of the United Nations Development Group, Miss Helen Clark
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
With the clock ticking alarmingly fast and only 27 days left before the kick-off of the greatest sporting event ever to happen on the African continent, I am honoured to officiate at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Campaign and the MDG Song Launch event.
In less than a month the eyes of the world will be firmly focussed on South Africa for the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
As South Africans we pride ourselves with the state of readiness and the positive change we have made in the lives of our people through this opportunity. Since the announcement in Zurich on 15 May 2004, that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africans have proudly risen to the task of preparing for organising and hosting a memorable World Cup. As government we want to ensure that the World Cup is also a project of the nation that will contribute to nation building, unity and patriotism.
We also realise that the FIFA World Cup presents us with an ideal forum to globally renew our commitment to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Sport, at the elite as well as at community level, is increasingly being used in a wide variety of ways to promote social inclusion to prevent conflict, and to enhance peace within and among nations.
Building on the international human rights framework and the unique attributes of sport, sport programmes represent a significant, yet largely untapped source of potential for enhancing and even accelerating development and peace efforts worldwide, particularly those related to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs have been widely accepted as the primary framework for measuring development progress. Now they guide the international assistance system. As we know, the MDGs comprise eight benchmarks with supporting targets that aim to eradicate or reduce poverty, hunger, child mortality, and disease, and to promote education, maternal health, gender equality, environmental sustainability and global partnerships.
World-wide sport and physical activity are gaining recognition as simple, low-cost, and effective means of achieving these development goals. In its report, Sport for Development and Peace: Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Inter-Agency Task Force concluded that ‘the fundamental elements of sport make it a viable and practical tool to support the achievement of the MDGs’.
I recognise that sport alone will not enable the international community to achieve the MDGs, but sport’s unique attributes make it a valuable component of broader, holistic approaches to addressing each of the millennium challenges. Therefore, I firmly believe that governments should recognise that sport is a powerful vehicle in pursuing the MDGs. Without going into specific details, let me briefly give you a few practical examples of how sports programmes can contribute to the achievement of the MDGs:
- Sports programmes and sports equipment production provide jobs and skills development.
- Participants, volunteers and coaches acquire transferable life skills, which increase their employability.
- Sport can help prevent diseases that impede people from working and impose health care costs on individuals and communities.
- Sport can help reduce stigma and increase self-esteem, self-confidence and social skills, leading to increased employability.
- School sports programmes motivate children to enrol in and attend school and can help improve academic achievement.
- Sport can help erode stigma preventing children with disabilities from attending school.
- Women and girls with disabilities are empowered by sport-based opportunities to acquire health information, skills, social networks and leadership experience.
- Sport helps improve female physical and mental health and offers opportunities for social interaction, friendship and leadership.
- Sport can be used to educate and deliver health information to young mothers, resulting in healthier children.
- Increased physical fitness improves children’s resistance to some diseases.
- Increased fitness levels help speed post-natal recovery.
- Sports programmes can be used to reduce stigma and increase social and economic integration of people living with HIV and AIDS.
- The involvement of celebrity athletes and the use of mass sports events can increase reach and impact of malaria, tuberculosis and other education and prevention campaigns.
- Sport-based public education campaigns can raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection and sustainability.
- Sport-based social mobilisation initiatives can enhance participation in community action to improve the local environment.
- Sport for development and peace efforts catalyse global partnerships and increase networking among governments, donors, NGOs and sports organisations worldwide.
The target date of 2015 for achieving the MDGs remains a challenge. There may be various reasons for this which differ from country to country. However, as far as I am concerned success depends on the international community’s willingness to make economic investments and, in many cases, policy and institutional changes to allow the implementation of practical measures that have already been shown to work.
While progress toward the MDGs is uneven and the goals will be difficult for some countries to achieve by 2015 without increased efforts, much can be done in a short period of time if there is collaboration and commitment, and if adequate resources and support are provided.
The potential contribution that sport can make combined with the fundamental urgency underlying the MDG targets, make it important for Governments to ensure that sports initiatives and resources are provided for in their national development frameworks and strategies. I hope that national governments will seize the opportunity to make policy changes that will contribute to attaining the Millennium Development Goals.
As far as South Africa is concerned, I believe that our contribution to the realisation of the MDGs can be strengthened by more substantial investments in sport and deriving the related benefits. In this regard, our Department is in the process of reviewing the White Paper on sport and recreation. Although only still a draft, strong focus is placed on the contribution of our country to the initiatives of the UN, including the MDGs, as part of the international strategic environment impacting on sports development.
As a strategic initiative our department will carefully look at ways to use sport and recreation as a tool in achieving the MDGs as well as promoting development and peace. Our Department will work closely with the UN Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group to maximise the potential of sport and recreation in peace and development initiatives.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasise that our work with the UN goes beyond sport for peace and development. Another initiative in which we are working with them is the One Goal for Cooperation on the Establishment for a Global Fund for Education.
The UN, through its Office for Drugs Control, UNICEF and the International Organisation for Migration, have also been working closely with the Office for Sexual Offences under the National Prosecutions Authority on issues of human trafficking. This includes the ‘red card’ campaign, which is aimed at discouraging foreign visitors from getting involved in illegal activities when visiting the country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this presents just a brief insight to the role of sport in making a meaningful contribution to the strategic initiatives of the UN. As a national department we will continue to use sport and recreation as a mechanism to impact on the achievement of the MDGs. On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, let us once again recognise the role that this event, and sport in general, can play in contributing to global development and peace and a better world for all.
I thank you
