Harnessing the Power of Sport for Development and Peace. Report from the Athens Roundtable Forum

This document reports the outcomes of the 2004 Athens Roundtable Forum “Harnessing the Power of Sport for Development and Peace” which engaged governments in discussions about sport and development. Welcoming speeches set the stage to address the specific policy potential of sport to achieve social, economic, health and development goals, and to initiate the creation of guiding concepts for governments to use sport as a policy tool for development and peace.

The Athens Roundtable Forum attracted a number of high-level policymakers from national governments, the United Nations and members of the Olympic Family. The main focus of the Roundtable Forum concentrated on its two consequent panels: Sport and HIV/AIDS and Sport and Peace. The complex links between sport, peace and development were explored in the Position Paper, developed for the 2004 Athens Roundtable Forum and distributed among its panelists and audience.

[Abstract adapted from the author]