QF, EAA and IOC to strengthen societies through sports

Doha: As the Olympic Games Paris 2024 unfold, a new collaboration is to be launched by Qatar Foundation, Education Above All Foundation, and the Inter...

Doha: As the Olympic Games Paris 2024 unfold, a new collaboration is to be launched by Qatar Foundation, Education Above All Foundation, and the International Olympic Committee that will harness the power of sports to nurture more equitable, inclusive, and educated communities across Asia and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Outlined yesterday at the Team Qatar Reception in the French capital, the three-year project – part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympism365, strategy to strengthen the role of sports and Olympism in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – will be focused on women and girls, people with disabilities, and people from marginalised communities, supporting the implementation of sports-for-good projects in over 10 countries, including Qatar, Sudan, and India.

Through developing localised solutions – in sports, and through sports – tailored to each country’s needs, challenges, and goals, the project aims to reach up to 50,000 children and youth through community sports programs, campaigns, policy and systems development, and partnerships that promote gender equality and inclusion.

It will also train up to 5,000 coaches, teachers, and instructors to develop the capability to promote equality and inclusion through sports, with education-focused digital interventions reaching hundreds of thousands more young people around the world. 

Its immediate goals are to increase accessible, gender inclusive, safe, and sustainable opportunities for sporting participation; unlock new funding and programming pathways for equality, inclusion, and learning through sports; raise awareness of how sports can be a catalyst for the development of individuals and societies; and encourage and secure the commitment of governments and key stakeholders to take action in using sports to advance equality, inclusion, and education.