Thomas Bach made the most of his recent trip to New York. The IOC President brought back two partnership contracts with United Nations entities. The first was with UN-Women, and the second with UN-Habitat. According to a press release from the body, the second of these collaboration agreements “combines efforts to accelerate sustainable development and promote quality of life in urban areas with initiatives to strengthen the role of sport as a facilitator of sustainable development, in particular through urban and city sports.” It will begin in November 2023 with a series of projects in five cities in Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, with an initial three-year timetable. Initially, the programme will focus on four areas of work: integrating sport and physical activity into cities’ analysis and planning tools, to help create urban environments that encourage active lifestyles and access to the benefits of sport for a greater number of people; building the capacity of municipal authorities, National Olympic Committees and sports organisations, by sharing knowledge on the role of sport and physical activity in the sustainable development of cities and urban environments; invest in the renovation and programming of urban sports infrastructure by providing seed funding to promote inclusive access to the benefits of sport among targeted populations; and finally, adopt guidelines for the integration of sport into urban development policies and the allocation of resources.
