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ICES webinar 8: In what ways do the IOC and IPC influence sport for development work?
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committe (IPC) have partnerships with grassroots sports organisations around the world, but what is the impact of this work and what more can be done?

"Sport for development has always been part of IOC work, but we have a lot of work to critcally develop this by looking at multi-sectorial needs,"said Sainimili Talatoka, from the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) in the latest ICES webinar from UK Sport International.

Other presenters included Jennifer Wong from Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) and  Clement Chileshe from Director of the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka, Zambia, all sharing their experiences of working with IOC and IPC supported programmes and projects.

Strengthening multi-sectorial partnerships

One significant outcome of the Next Step conference in Trinidad and Tobago last year was a call to further align sport and development programmes with governments, organisations and corporate companies across the world and across various disciplines. This issue still remains on the agenda of grassroots sport and development organisations.

Providing infrastucture and support
The OYDC in Zambia is now an economic asset to the community, as the centre slowly generates self-sustaining funds and attracting media to the work of local sport and development organisations. The centre hosts over 1,000 people each day and around 5,000 over a weekend. The facility, which is open to the community runs skills and IT training workshops too.

The centre has re-launched sport in the country, attracting high-level public figures to the centre and interest from non-traditional sponsors. The IOC is working with members of the OYDC to see how the facility can reach out further and impact other members of the community.

Jennifer also highlighted that youth involved in sport and development programmes during her placement in Trinidad and Tobago with TTASPE are using these skill developing platforms to add value to their work experience and increase their chances of employment.

Opening pathways

More children have been able to access high quality sport as a result of the Oceana Sport Education Programme (OSEP) which adopts the ICES framework. The regional model for sport participation was developed by the community and then replicated in other regions. Using intermural sports competitions to engage learners, the programme also identifed national sports players and potential elite sportspeople. As a result of this work, major sporting bodies and international federations are based in Oceana.

Raising awareness
The National Paralympic Committee(NPC) in Trinidad and Tobago has helped re-structure the national sports federations, opening more opportunities for people at a participation level.

Record breaking and medal winning paralympic swimmer, Shantol Ince, is one of the programmes greatest successes as the NPC supported her as an amateur swimmer to Commonwealth Games medal winner. The value of working with the NPC is the avenues it provides athletes and organisations working at grassroots level to provide opportunities and increase awareness around such issues.

The OYDC has also drawn in record numbers of disabled bodied learners interested in taking up sport.

Join the discussion

ICES webinars are a low cost and effective method for sharing information. UK Sport will be hosting a further three webinars this year, providing the opportunity for players in the sport and development world to participate.

To find out more information, please contact Priya Samuel at [email protected]

Read more about ICES webinars

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