IDSDP 2016: International in name, global in nature

6 April marked the third International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP). A look at the media coverage of the event shows that it is gaining global momentum.

IDSDP was officially recognised by the UN in August 2013 and since then has steadily gained in recognition. The 70% increase in number of events registered with sportanddev.org this year on our “Who’s doing what” page is indicative of this trend.

Statements released by some of the major players, including UN Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace Wilfried Lemke, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, brought international attention to the day.

However, an important aspect of the IDSDP is to reach beyond the sport and development community and spread the message to different sectors. One way of doing so is to get the attention of the mainstream media both at the local and at the international level. This year, IDSDP was featured in media outlets around the world, including:

El Búscolu, Spain (in Spanish)
Dekh News, India
The Guardian, United Kingdom
The Huffington Post, International
Kuensel, Bhutan
The New Times, Rwanda
El Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua (in Spanish)
Pakistan Observer
Pravda.ru, Russia
Shanghai Daily, China
Westfälische Nachrichten, Germany (in German)

The day was also observed by individuals and organisations not typically associated with sport and development. For example, in an address on 6 April, Pope Francis recognised sport as a “universal language” and praised sport for its ability to “help persons meet and overcome conflicts”.

The most visible impact of IDSDP was on social media. Various campaigns used dedicated hashtags to celebrate the occasion, including #IDSDP2016, #whitecard, #sport4betterworld, #april6, and #iplayforsdgs. According to the hashtag tracker Keyhole, #IDSDP2016 reached over 35 million individuals with over 76,974,538 unique impressions on twitter alone.

Combining this with the other hashtags and social media exposure on Facebook, YouTube and other platforms means that IDSDP 2016 was a truly global event. This map from Keyhole shows where people were tweeting about #IDSDP2016 and what percentage of all conversations that area comprises.

To capture this global momentum, sportanddev.org has compiled an infographic highlighting what IDSDP means to people around the world and is collecting all the videos commemorating the day on a YouTube playlist. We have also collated some of the events from the Spanish-speaking world, which is very active in sport and development but not always featured on English language sites.

After such a successful celebration of sport for development and peace, we all deserve a little break to enjoy the start of spring (or autumn for those in the southern hemisphere). However, we can’t forget that the real work takes place during the other 364 days of the year, as we each do our part to make the world a better place using sport.