Launch of the international and national monthly policy agenda on sport, development and peace priorities
On the occasion of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on 6 April 2020, the Foundation for Sport, Development and Peace (FSDP) is pleased to launch its first international and national policy agenda on sport, development and peace.
The foundation, a South African non-profit organisation, has this month released a policy agenda on sport, development and peace as an invitation to stakeholders to consider important policy priorities in these challenging times. The initiative follows a bottom-up approach attempting to constructively engage with the policy agendas of decision-makers, practitioners and scholars in the field as to their priorities and practices. Although the policy agenda recognises the current challenges caused by the COVID-19 global health crisis, it is also evident sport and recreation have taken advantage of opportunities to offer active support to the well-being of communities in lockdown.
The FSDP and its national and international advisory bodies have created a policy agenda that ranks a set of policy issues by priority and importance. The FSDP is encouraging other like-minded NGOs in other countries and regions to develop similar policy agendas of their priorities. The FSDP supports a cooperative and collaborative approach in policymaking and implementation and believes that cooperative governance should be supported where civil society, governments, educational institutions, federations and the private sector collaborate with each other to achieve sport, development and peace.
The purpose of FSDP publishing a monthly Sport and Development Policy Agenda on their website and releasing the agenda widely is to stimulate the debate globally on important policy issues in the field, especially in these times when alternative options, creativity and social cohesion are much needed. The policy agenda also challenges policymakers on their existing and new priorities, advocates for the implementation of important policy priorities and aims to stimulate the debate and dialogue between policymakers and NGOs and civil society to address and resolve these important priorities. Although some stakeholders argue that at this time of such grave uncertainty our reality is not stable enough to determine with any accuracy what priorities should be confirmed, the FSDP argues that it is exactly at such times when the consideration of alternative policy options and better ways of ensuring action, should be vigorously explored and debated.
As policy advocacy is a core activity of the FSDP and as the foundation has the internal policy expertise as well as national and international networks to make a meaningful contribution in setting and debating policy agendas in sport, development and peace, the foundation is well placed to launch and maintain this initiative. Policy advocacy on these issues also challenges the need for the sporting community to respond to the call for action regarding the SDGs and Agenda 2030, the Kazan Action Plan and other important policy frameworks. The policy debate should develop SDG priority areas and appropriate indicators for this purpose and for governments, civil society and the private sector to collectively focus their efforts on these priorities.
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