FOOTBALL WORLD CUP PROMOTES SPORTS AS A FORCE FOR WORLD PEACE

PREAMBLE: We take the opportunity of the World Cup concluding today, to issue our blog a few days earlier than usual. This is a timely moment to take note of initiatives to bond international sport to the cause of world peace.

Congratulations are due to South Africa for its success in hosting this year’s event with evident warmth, safety and competence; this nation, more than most, symbolizes the universal striving for world peace, in its peaceful overthrowing of apartheid, and efforts to seek truth and reconciliation in its internal affairs. A standard is set for others to follow - we can all learn from South Africa.

We congratulate Spain as winners, and all other countries who competed, even those not selected to play in south Africa. We are sufficiently old-fashioned to think that participation lies at the heart of all sport; after all, without participants, there will be no ultimate "winner". With participation, at a more fundamental level, everyone is a "winner".

Our selection of this topic is not a new idea, but reflects a growing reality over many years that sports can be a force for international relations. Historically, this force has been used in various ways, from negative to positive. However, taking the high road, we note the following development in 2006:

In July 2006, the European Commission and the Fédération Internationale de Football Associations (FIFA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote football as a factor for development in Africa, in the Caribbean and in Pacific countries. According to the Commission, around 50 million people across Africa play football regularly and for many of these people, football is "an act of survival" and a means of rebuilding confidence and promoting tolerance and solidarity. It believes that linking football with development programmes can help make a difference to the lives of millions of people.

The Commission-FIFA MoU covers areas ranging from development cooperation and humanitarian aid to racism, post-conflict reconstruction, nation-building, health and education.

This background is extracted from the webpage cited below for the article which we showcase as this months blog topic.

SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT PLAN ADOPTED
Ahead of the football World Cup in South Africa,... the United Nations (UN) together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC)... adopted a series of recommendations on harnessing the power of sport as a tool for development. The 19 recommendations cover humanitarian assistance, peace-building, education, gender equality, the environment and the fight against HIV/AIDS. They were adopted on 21-22 May during the first joint UN-IOC forum, entitled 'The Importance of Partnership', in Lausanne. The participants, including NGOs and academic experts, stressed the need to embed sport in national development policies to leverage its instrumental potential in the field. The forum also underlined the need to avoid creating parallel structures between the various different players and duplicating activities.

2010 FIFA World Cup
In the forum, the UN stressed that this year's football World Cup, which kicks off in South Africa on Friday (11 June), presents the country and the rest of the continent with a unique opportunity to build peace and development. "The World Cup in South Africa is a unique occasion to transform the African people's pride and enthusiasm into a positive dynamic of solidarity, tolerance and development," said Wilfried Lemke, special adviser to the UN secretary-general on sport for development and peace. A number of UN funds, programmes and specialized agencies are making use of the World Cup as a platform for outreach and collaboration to leverage the power of the event. Last October, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging the international community to harness the World Cup for the development of the whole African continent.

Action plan on development through football
Earlier this spring, representatives of 63 development NGOs, football clubs, players' unions, sport organisations, academic institutions and governmental bodies gathered at an international conference on “Development through Football” in Vienna to adopt an action plan on football for development. The action plan calls for football governing bodies to support initiatives in the area of development through sport, especially at grass-roots level, and assign at least 0.7% of total revenue to social responsibility initiatives, for example. It further suggests the establishment of a strategy to raise media awareness of development through sport and using football as a tool for preventing violence, gender inequality, ethnic tensions and war.

Source: United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) http://www.euractiv.com/en/sports/sport-development-plan-adopted-ahead-world-cup-news-494939 07 June 2010

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. To recognise the honour accorded to the IOC through the
granting of UN Permanent Observer Status and the historic
milestone which this represents in giving an authoritative voice
to the sporting movement within the international community,
with the power to act as an advocate for the role of sport in the
service of peace and development.

2. To resolve to maximise the opportunity afforded by the granting of Observer Status to build on the IOC’s relationship with the UN and to sustain and complement the UN’s efforts to shape a peaceful future. Furthermore, mindful of the need for close cooperation with government authorities, to leverage this unique and seminal opportunity to interface with and influence national governments in the formulation of their development policies and to entrench sport within those policies by emphasizing its enormous power as an indispensable tool for peace and development.

3. To emphasise that it is incumbent on the Olympic Movement to
fulfil its collective responsibility and moral duty, in accordance
with the principles and values of Olympism, by identifying and
implementing best practice in the use of sport to promote
economic and social development; and further, to recognise the
need to think beyond the competitive character of sport to
maximise its contribution to development.

4. Mindful of the fact that the IOC will need to be proactive in its
relationship with the UN, to prioritise a dialogue with the UN on
the mainstreaming and embedding of sport within UN
programmes for humanitarian development and to seek the
UN’s active support and specific proposals with regard to this
undertaking.

5. To acknowledge and harness the power of partnership in sport
at all levels, from local, regional, international and sectoral, in
order to translate the vision of a peaceful, healthy society into
reality; and to recognise the need for a collaborative, sharing,
networking and learning approach which engages all key
stakeholders including the private sector, civil society and the
military. Furthermore, to facilitate all such partnerships by
building new alliances, defining new areas of co-operation,
creating fresh synergies and identifying the organisations and
institutions with whom the Olympic Movement can most
effectively collaborate to further our common goals, while at the
same time mindful of the need for a co-ordinated approach,
which complements ongoing initiatives and avoids the creation
of parallel structures and the unnecessary duplication and
overlap of activities.

6. To develop the IOC’s working relationships with the Other
Entities who have Permanent Observer Status at the UN in
order to realise our common goals, in particular the Red Cross
Movement, given their similar structures and shared objectives;
and to encourage the national affiliates of the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and
the NOCs to work together, particularly in areas where they
have joint programming activities, such as in the field of
HIV/AIDs, disaster prevention and disaster response.

7. To underline the commitment of the Olympic Movement to
continue its efforts to combat HIV/AIDs, including the
dissemination of the ‘Tool Kit for the Sports Community:
Together for HIV and AIDS Prevention’, as widely as possible.

8. To recognise the contribution that the IOC has made in support
of the UN Millennium Development Goals to date and to stress,
on the occasion of this UN-IOC Forum, the Olympic Family’s
continuing commitment to engage with all of the MDGs and to
accelerate efforts to facilitate their delivery specifically through
the medium of sport and education by the 2015 target date,
including appropriate IOC participation in the UN Summit on
MDGs in September 2010.

9. To recognise the responsibility of the sporting movement to
strive for environmental protection and sustainability at all times:
and to commit the Olympic Family to the promotion of
environmental sustainability in all aspects of its work.

10. To acknowledge the unique contribution of the forthcoming
Youth Olympic Games in the promotion of Olympic values to
young people, including peace and development, and to
recognise the importance of outreach to young people in
tackling social challenges, by taking steps to connect with them
effectively, making full use of digital communications, the
internet and social media. Furthermore, in recognition of the
fact that the education system is the most comprehensive way
of reaching young people, to work with all relevant partners and
stakeholders, in particular national and local government
authorities, to ensure that the promotion of participation in sport
and physical activities is included in school curricula worldwide
in view of the contribution of sport to health, wellbeing and
education.

11. To commend the achievements of the International Olympic
Truce Foundation in its endeavour to encourage the study of
world peace and the creation of progress in its pursuits; and in
addition, the achievements of the World Taekwondo Federation
Sport Peace Corps in its successful outreach to young people
and its aims of building a better and more peaceful world; and
to advocate the consideration of its global expansion, in close
cooperation with key stakeholders, including the IOC, the UN,
national and international sports federations and NOCs, firmly
believing that together, we have the ability to promote global
peace and harmony through sport.

12. Mindful of the priority given to gender equity and the
empowerment of women in the UN Millennium Development
Goals, to affirm the importance of sport as a vehicle for the
achievement of gender equality and to continue to strive for
equal opportunities for women in and through sport, both at
grass roots levels and in leadership positions, while avoiding
generalised, one-size-fits-all approaches. Furthermore, to give
full recognition to the high-quality female role models in sport
and to increase the target number of women in leadership
positions and decision-making structures within the Olympic
Family and in the wider sporting world.

13. To ensure a fully inclusive approach, additionally by making
it a priority to include girls and women with disabilities in sport
for development and peace initiatives.

14. To resolve to promote more health-enhancing initiatives, in
particular to tailor and develop activities designed to reach
inactive groups and to forge new alliances with all stakeholders,
including public health authorities and the WHO for the purpose
of promoting healthy lifestyles and addressing the challenges of
obesity, poor nutrition and ill health.

15. To recognise that while sport alone cannot prevent the evils
of society and solve the world’s political socio-economic
problems, it can contribute to a climate of peace and to the
making of improved life for its citizens. That being the case, to
reflect on how to implement the UN Secretary-General’s
request for the IOC to consider organising more activities on the
ground in conflict or post-conflict situations and to identify
appropriate partners in this endeavour, both with UN agencies
and elsewhere, while remaining humble and realistic about the
contribution that the IOC and sport can make to peace-making,
peace-building and peace consolidation efforts.

16. To consider the creation of a web-based informationsharing
network for sport in peace and development, through
which information, expertise and know-how on local, national
and regional initiatives, case studies, research, best practice
and impact measurement and evaluation of projects can be
shared by all members of the Olympic Family.

17. To explore further the vast potential of ‘healing through
sport’, both in post-conflict situations and in equipping
communities to cope with the profound trauma caused by
natural disasters, recognising the need to customize sports
interventions according to the situation on the ground and the
need for collaborative efforts with established local community
development networks including coaches and volunteers, as
well as with UN agencies and NGOs, to build resilience and
create durable, sustainable change within devastated
communities.

18. To recognise the enormous contribution of volunteers to
efforts to advance peace and development through sport and to
encourage the IOC and the Olympic Family to participate in the
celebrations during 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of the
International Year of Volunteers.

19. To recommend the holding of further UN-IOC Forums and
the continuation of the Working Party of the International Forum
on Sport for Peace and Development established by the
President of the IOC, whose remit would include the provision
of full assistance with all aspects of the preparation of the
second International Forum on Sport for Peace and
Development as well as a comprehensive review of the
outcome of the 2010 UN-IOC Forum.

Source: United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). UN-IOC FORUM: THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIP Lausanne 21st-22nd May 2010. http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Development_through_Sport/Recommendations_UN-IOC%20Forum.pdf

IS CLIMATE CHANGE AN ACT OF AGRESSION?

PREAMBLE: In this issue we abstract an article carried by The Economist (on-line edition Sept 24th, 2007). The article reported on Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni's declaration that climate change is an act of aggression by the rich world against the world’s poor. We also note, on the same topic, the following statement from the Church World Service (CWS): "The issue for CWS is how climate change frames development and justice", said Rajyashri Waghray, who directs education and advocacy for the CWS.

For stark contrast we note Canada’s uncertain posture, now quoted from a Globe and Mail Editorial of September 26: “Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s progress from a climate-change skeptic to an environmental convert has been a perplexing odyssey. After a half-hearted attempt to tackle greenhouse-gas emissions late last year, his Conservative government hurriedly introduced new regulations and incentives, which made a good start in fostering reductions. Earlier…(in September), in Australia, he even announced his personal commitment to ‘careful environmental stewardship’. That seemed heartfelt. Now it is fair to question the sincerity of that conversion. On… (Sept 24), at a UN climate change conference aimed at saving the Kyoto Protocol, Mr Harper announced that Canada had asked to join a rival climate-change pact, the Asia-Pacific Partnership. The six members of that pact include nations that have refused to ratify the protocol, such as the United States, and others among the world’s worst polluters, such as India and China. Together they account for nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions”.

And now The Economist’s discussion of the Ugandan Prime Minister’s proposition, and their assessment of the situation and implications in Africa...

CLIMATE CHANGE AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION
At a recent African Union summit, Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, declared climate change an act of aggression by the rich world against the world’s poor. Indeed, if predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) hold true, climate change may have a graver effect on Africa than on any other continent. One may well ask…Why should the poorest die for the continued excesses of the richest?

According to The Economist, the IPCC's most recent regional report raises the spectre of rising mortality. It predicts a minimum 2.5°C increase in temperature in Africa by 2030; drylands bordering deserts may get drier, wetlands bordering rainforests may get wetter. The panel suggests the supply of food in Africa will be “severely compromised” by climate change, with crop yields in danger of collapsing in some countries.

In the drylands, water may become a critical issue. Soaring temperatures and erratic rainfall may dry up surface water. Between 75m and 250m Africans, out of the 800m or so now living in sub-Saharan Africa, may be short of water. The soil will hold less moisture, bore-holes will become contaminated, and women and girls will have to walk ever greater distances to fetch water. Vegetative cover will recede. The IPCC guesses that 600,000 square kilometres (232,000 square miles) of cultivable land may be ruined.

Warming may also hurt animal habitats and biodiversity. More algae in freshwater lakes will hit fishing. The glaciers of Uganda's Rwenzori mountains, of Tanzania's Kilimanjaro and of Kenya's eponymous mountain may disappear; only 7 of the 18 glaciers recorded on Mount Kenya in 1900 still remain. At the same time, a likely rise in sea levels may threaten the coastal infrastructure of northern Egypt, the Gambia, the Gulf of Guinea and Senegal.

There are two caveats to this gloomy scenario: 1) some parts of Africa may benefit from climate change. Increased rainfall in highland areas in eastern Africa could, for example, be beneficial. 2) though climate-change models have improved, they have been unreliable in Africa; the detail is guesswork.

Still, states The Economist, some scientists think that climate change may be even crueler to parts of Africa than the IPCC predicts. The important point, they say, is not the degree of warming but the continent's vulnerability to it. A University of Pretoria study estimates that Africa might lose $25 billion in crop failure due to rising temperatures and another $4 billion from less rain. The already impoverished drylands would suffer most. Some cite the war in Sudan's Darfur region as proof of the damage done by climate change, soil erosion and overpopulation.

Unfortunately, in the opinion of The Economist, few African leaders have grasped the scale of the challenge... Most oil-producers have squandered their bonanza. Nigeria has failed to plan for how to stem the dreadful pollution in its oil-producing Delta region or to prevent desertification tearing at the fabric of its dry Muslim north. South Africa is only just beginning to own up to its coal addiction. Uganda's Mr Museveni is fighting off a rare insurrection from his supporters against plans to turn a piece of Ugandan rainforest over to farming. The World Meteorological Organisation says that weather-data collection in Africa has recently got worse, just as the need for accurate figures has grown; many of the automatic weather stations it helped set up have fallen into disrepair. The African Union has done little to sound the climate-change alarm.

Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki, says that Africa should “join hands” with its friends in the rich world over climate change. He wants more carbon-trading projects to come to Africa; so far, most have gone to Asia. His advisers admit that Mr Kibaki's ambitious plan to turn Kenya into an industrial country by 2020 worries environmentalists, but say that reforestation, thermal power and better management of water and grazing would, if they materialized, offset the damage.

Africa emits far less carbon than other continents, so its recently faster-growing economies do not gravely menace its environment. Some rich-country consumers, however, want to punish African countries for air freighting northwards some of their produce, from flowers to wine.
Hardier new varieties of staple crops, drip irrigation schemes and technologies such as solar power should help Africa adapt to climate change. But so can simple shifts in policy. For instance, a government decision in Burkina Faso to let farmers own the trees on their land has increased the country's tree cover.

The Economist’s conclusion: As the G8 rich countries are failing so far to fulfill the promises they made in 2005 to boost aid to Africa, the continent should not expect much new money to protect the environment. In the short run, Africa's own politicians need to take a lead, even if the people most culpable for the damage done by climate change live elsewhere.

Sources:
. Church World Service and partners prepare to act on climate change. May 2, 2007. http://www.churchworldservice.org/Educ_Advo/news/2007/climatechange.html
. Globe and Mail. Lead Editorial. Sept 26, 2007.
. Economist.com. Global Warming in Africa – drying up and flooding out. Sept 24, 2007. http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9163426

COMMENT: What is important about the contrasting viewpoints presented, from those of President Museveni, to the Church World Service, The Economist, to the anti-Kyoto stance of Prime Minister Harper and the Asian-Pacific partnership, is that ultimately they highlight climate change as an ethical issue that almost inevitably will come up as a focus for discussion at the UN negotiations on climate change scheduled for Bali in December.