Call for Articles: How can sport support refugees in urban settings and fight discrimination?
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اقرأ النسخة العربية: دعوة لتقديم المقالات.
Week of Action: Sport and Refugees 2025
The number of displaced people globally has increased annually for the past 12 years, with over 50% living in urban centres. Sport can support the inclusion and integration of displaced people in host communities and counter discrimination and misinformation towards them.
Every year, the SfRC and sportanddev run a week of activities dedicated to the intersection of sport and refugees. It provides opportunities for learning, exchange and advocacy on the role of sport in addressing forced displacement, enabling greater coordination and impact.
Contribute to our call for articles
Access to sport is a human right and the role of sport is recognized in the 2030 Agenda and the Global Compact for Refugees. The Global Refugee Forum Multi-stakeholder pledge on Sport for inclusion and protection seeks to leverage sport to support refugees.
sportanddev and the Sport for Refugees Coalition (SfRC) are launching a call for articles on how sport can better serve refugees under these two broad themes. We welcome submissions from a range of stakeholders. Insights will help inform the inputs of the SfRC at the upcoming High-Level Officials Meeting (HLOM) in December 2025. The two topics below are also pledges under the Global Compact for Refugees to which sport can contribute.
1. Bridging Communities: Cities' Role in Sport for Inclusion
At the urban level, city to city partnerships in Lebanon and Switzerland have helped with knowledge and infrastructure for establishing bicycle sharing and bike lanes for use by host communities and Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Elsewhere, in Canada, Colombia, France, Jordan and the USA, among other countries, refugees with sport and coaching experience have found employment and mentoring roles in their new communities.
Guiding questions
- How can sport support the inclusion of displaced people in cities or municipalities?
- How can policymakers better support the inclusion of displaced people at the local level?
- How has sport changed the lives of displaced people in cities and municipalities? What can we learn from these successes? What are the challenges and opportunities?
2. Sport Against Hate: Tackling Discrimination through Sport
At the same time, there is increasing use of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation towards displaced people, particularly through social media and in everyday life and politics. How can actors using sport combat stigma, negative narratives and barriers to inclusion?
Guiding questions
- How can discrimination against refugees be addressed in sport for development?
- What works well and what needs to change in using sport to fight discrimination?
- How can existing efforts to fight hate speech and discrimination in and through sport be localized or scaled?
The guiding questions above are just suggestions – you are welcome to write an article from any angle as long as the main focus is on one or both of the two main themes.
How do I submit an article?
Option 1: Using the webform
- Register as a sportanddev user and log in.
- Visit the Submit your Content page.
- Select Article and paste your article content into the webform.
- View the below help video or guide blog post for help.
Option 2: Submit your content via email
Please submit your article or any queries you have to:
- John Bartmann (English)
- Haneen Khatib (Arabic)
- Claire Smagghe (French)
- Carolina Agurcia (Spanish)
Guidelines for Articles
- Accepted formats include Microsoft Word, a link to Google Docs, and plain text in the body of the email. Please include your name (and organization if applicable) and a high-resolution image.
- Articles should be 400-1,000 words long
- Include a relevant photo in landscape (horizontal) orientation, for which you own the copyright, or is subject to some form of creative commons license.
- Include a 1-2 sentence biography of the author(s)
- Include links to any social media accounts you would like associated with the post
- Include links to any websites you would like associated with the post
- Avoid submitting promotional or press releases, and rather share learning for the broader field
All relevant contributions will be published and credited on the sportanddev website – and highlighted during The Week of Action on Sport and Refugees from 7-11 April 2025.
Deadline: 18 April 2025
Join an online workshop
How do I join an online workshop?
Two live online workshops will take place. Workshops are free to attend.
- 8th April 2025 Online workshop: Using sport to support displaced people in cities/municipalities
- 10th April 2025 Online workshop: Using sport to tackle hate speech and discrimination
How can sport support refugees in urban settings and fight discrimination? Publish your views on sportanddev for the Week of Action from 7-11 April. Get started 👉 https://t.co/YK1V9qDdqP #WeekOfAction2025 pic.twitter.com/tfHhVMz4TR
— sportanddev (@sportanddev) March 25, 2025
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About the Sport for Refugees Coalition
Established at the first Global Refugee Forum in 2019, the SfRC is co-convened by UNHCR, the Olympic Refuge Foundation, and the Scort Foundation, bringing together over 130 entities. Find the list of coalition members or contact [email protected] to join.
sportanddev has a long-standing partnership with the SfRC that aims to share information, tools and resources for using, and advocating for, sport to support refugees and displaced communities. This included a dedicated website section on Sport and Refugees on sportanddev.org, regular updates, and an annual Week of Action on Sport and Refugees.
Image credit: ORF/AVSI
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