The African Union (AU) is helping get the ball rolling for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa by rallying countries across the continent to use of footballs tremendous appeal for a broad range of development and peace activities through the International Year of African Football 2007 (IYoAF) and the World Cup Legacy Programme.
The AU is holding the first ever conference of Ministers of Sport on June 4-8 in Addis Ababa to help generate involvement in these World Cup initiatives in Africas 53 countries, and more broadly for using the power of sport to advance education and health, improve livelihoods, increases opportunities for women and girls, and encourage peace-building.
The Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the South Africa Local Organising Committee for the World Cup, the Governments of South Africa and Ethiopia, and the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) are key partners for the initiatives. The United Nations is also part of the team.
FIFA, led by President Sepp Blatter, is also helping ensure that the entire continent benefits from the World Cup through its Win in Africa with Africa initiative, which is also the World Cup slogan.
As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, Sport is increasingly recognised as an important tool in helping the United Nations achieve its objectives, in particular the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By including sport in development and peace programmes in a more systematic way, the United Nations can make full use of this cost-efficient tool to help us create a better world. Under the leadership of Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, and former President of Switzerland, the United Nations is embarking on a new phase of mainstreaming sport for development and peace, to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.
Sports initiatives in Africa
More than 30 African countries undertook initiatives in conjunction with the International Year of Sport and Physical Education 2005 and can build on these for IYoAF 2007 and the World Cup Legacy Programme.
For example, Botswana is pursuing a Sport for All initiative to create an environment in which all citizens can participate in sports for fun, health, fitness or recreation. Ghana is including sport in its national poverty reduction strategy for 2006 - 2009 due to sports significant impact in improving health, education, the environment and promoting job creation. Mali has set up a commission to restore sports programmes in schools and universities. Mauritius is building a sport infrastructure to democratise and enhance the practice of sport.
In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade has placed sport and the youth at the centre of his development plan. Sierra Leone established a national committee on sport for development and peace to help draft a national sports policy, and also a Sport for All campaign. South Africa built more than 100 sports facilities and boosted the budget for sports projects by nearly 40 per cent in 2006. South Africas LoveLife Games involve more than 400,000 youth and 11,000 schools to promote healthy living and personal achievement. Tunisia has made major investments in sports infrastructure and aims to make physical education compulsory in primary schools by 2009.
In Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa announced that physical education would be re-introduced into the national school curriculum. The Sport for Peace 2005-2010 project in Uganda organized over 80 inter-village sport matches to promote peaceful co-existence.
