Professor Muhammad Yunus and Didier Drogba revealed as headline speakers at the 2017 Peace and Sport International Forum

The forum, Peace and Sport’s annual event, brings together leading thinkers from across both the sport world and the peace world to engage in a journey exploring the theme “Sport Innovation for Social Transformation” to pinpoint and unlock scalable solutions that will, in return, transform societies and leave a sustainable legacy for generations to come. Both eminent personalities will address 500 high-level delegates in a special session and will envision innovative ways to use sport for the benefit of society over the coming 10 years. They will inspire the delegates to take actions related to social business and peace promotion.

Yunus, a former banker from Bangladesh, is the founder of microcredit, a financial tool which enables underprivileged men and women to borrow a very small amount of money to invest in income generating activities and to build a livelihood for themselves. It is believed that microcredit will be a major driving force in helping to eradicate poverty, and Yunus has been decorated for introducing the idea to the world.

A major part of Paris’ successful bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Yunus has extensively advocated for the importance of sport in microcredit, and will speak at the Peace and Sport International Forum about the way sports organisations can help to eliminate poverty and promote entrepreneurship and social business.

Drogba, an Ivorian whose career took him to London, Marseille, Shanghai, Istanbul and Montreal, has been prolific in using his athletic career to help spread peace, and will be sharing his insights and experience with those in attendance at the Peace and Sport International Forum.

Drogba is widely credited with helping to end the civil war in the Ivory Coast in 2006, after making a public plea for all combatants to lay down their arms, a plea that was ultimately answered. The following year he was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme, and has spent his time since helping to fight poverty in his home city of Abdijan. Drogba recently joined the Champions for Peace club and will help to spread Peace and Sport vision across the world.

Discussing the Forum, Professor Muhammad Yunus said:

“I always felt amazed at the limitless power of sport. It is powerful because it is basic to human nature. Where there is power, there is always a chance to make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.”

Didier Drogba added:

“It is special for me to have been asked to speak at the Peace and Sport Forum, and I am excited to meet so many who are dedicated to the power of the peace-through-sport movement. I have spent much of my life using my position within sport to help enact change, and it will be incredible to bring so many minds together to share in best practice. Together, we can change the world.”