PRESS CONFERENCE BY DIRECTOR, UN NEW YORK OFFICE OF SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT, PEACE

The United Nations was helping African countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire use sports as a healthful, fun tool to transcend years of armed conflict and to promote socio-economic development, a United Nations official said during a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Under the leadership of Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace was partnering with political and youth leaders to use sporting events to heal political rifts and put sub-Saharan Africa on track for achieving the ambitious Millennium Development Goals of sustainable development and poverty eradication by 2015.

“From international to grass-roots events, sports bring people together in a way that crosses boundaries and breaks down barriers, making the playing field a simple and apolitical site,” said Djibril Diallo, Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace.

The Office and the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations had organized a “sport for peace” programme before last year’s elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  In March, Mr. Ogi and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, in cooperation with the International Olympic Committee, had launched a similar pilot programme to distribute $70,000 in sports equipment to 15 provinces in Liberia.  And, on Tuesday, the United Nations team would meet with delegates from Côte d’Ivoire to hammer out strategies for recovery and reconstruction.  Mr. Ogi’s office was encouraging similar initiatives in other countries recovering from armed conflict.

In the next three years, the Office of Sport for Development and Peace would also collaborate with the African Union and the South African Organizing Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to use the universal popularity of football, particularly among youth, to improve education, health, gender equality, job opportunities and peace prospects in all 53 African countries.  Mr. Diallo would also participate in the first session of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Sport on 4 June in Addis Ababa.  Since the first United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit had been held in October 2006, youth in more than 70 countries had reported on their efforts to use sports to achieve the millennium targets.

A lack of physical activity directly contributed to nearly 2 million deaths annually, Mr. Diallo said.  Sixty per cent of adults worldwide did not participate in sufficient recreational or physical activity, he said, adding that, in the United States alone, such inactivity had led to a $75-billion increase in medical costs in 2000.  Studies showed that $1 spent on physical education or activity resulted in a $3.20 savings in medical costs.

During the question-and-answer period, Mr. Diallo said his Office was working very closely with the International Olympic Committee and Chinese authorities to promote sports for peace during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics, as well as the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai.  He stressed that adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Peoples with Disabilities, whose article 30 addressed the need for countries to improve access to sport and recreation activities for people with disabilities, was a positive step forward.

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