''Sport is an important enabler of sustainable development.'' International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2020

 Reopening, Recovery and Resilience Post-COVID-19.

Adjusting Course and Accelerating Action 

Through Sport The intersects of sport, the SDGs and COVID-19 point to four key focus areas for the sporting world in shaping COVID-19 response and recovery: promoting human rights and combatting discrimination; ensuring equal access to sport and physical activity; safeguarding participants; and ensuring integrity in sport. 

Promoting Human Rights and Combatting Discrimination 

Due to its influence on culture and society, sport can be instrumental in promoting human rights norms and countering discrimination, consistent with the UN Charter’s reaffirmation of faith in fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women. The strength of sport as a platform to inspire has been demonstrated in recent highly publicized athlete-led actions to combat racism. The promotion of human rights by the competitive and commercial sports industries, and their efforts to embed these principles in their own work, are also of great importance in the context of the pandemic, which has in some instances, exacerbated racism, hate speech and scapegoating, and been associated with spikes in domestic and gender-based violence, and violence against children under confinement. The role of the sporting community in promoting social inclusion and solidarity and in combating negative stereotypes and abuse, including by speaking out against discriminatory and harmful behavior, is therefore especially needed at this time. 

Beyond advocacy, sport for development actors are also highly encouraged to embrace the human rights principles of non-discrimination and equality, as well as provisions contained in relevant human rights instruments regarding the right to play, leisure and sport, indigenous and traditional sport and games, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and sport for well-being; and to promote sports interventions as means to foster social inclusion, social cohesion, protection and skills development. Further to this, access to sport should be increasingly considered and integrated as a mean to enhance and complement efforts to mitigate and prevent the generation of conditions conducive to violent extremism in all of its forms. In this endeavour, proper attention should be given to ensure that sport and its values are used and tailored to meet the specific needs of each beneficiary community and demographic. 

Safeguarding Participants

 In their efforts to gradually return to a new normal, or a limited normality, Member States and societies throughout the world are considering or have taken steps to allow the organization of major sporting events. The security of such events, which has historically been a complex and demanding task, has been complicated by the current global health crisis. As such, it is imperative for the international community, Members States hosting major sporting events, sports federation and private entities and other relevant stakeholders to understand and promptly react to the new implications and challenges to be addressed in the context of the security of sporting events governance. In the context of COVID-19 health precautions, the WHO has issued guidance for sport, which offers advice on how to organize these events and to apply a rigorous, systematic risk assessment exercise to ensure safety.

 WHO recommends that a risk-based approach should always be used at policy level to facilitate planning of mass gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the event level to evaluate any associated health risks, put in place measures to decrease such risks, and communicate information on adjustments made to the event and on residual level of risk. While the future is still very uncertain, many sport organizations recognize that the pandemic could cause a widespread change to sports as we know them, and to how events are organized going forward; in this context, it is crucial that standardized and evidence-based approaches are adopted to decide if and how an event should proceed. In addressing safe participation beyond the professional sphere, it is important to recognise the role of coaches and other sports professionals as significant adults for children, adolescents, youth and others who may be vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse – including sexual and gender-based violence. Many of these vulnerable participants have now experienced periods of isolation from the support peer networks had provided, including those adults and coaches who had helped them to navigate the various manifestations of physical, sexual and/or emotional violence and discrimination that, for many, have been compounded under COVID-19. In this regard, recovering better means stronger engagement with children, youth and participants in vulnerable situations through meaningful consultations and other appropriate mechanisms, to ensure ethical and meaningful participation in decisions that affect them, including standard setting, in line with the Human Rights Based Approach and relevant human rights instruments. Governments and sports organizations, with support from international organizations, should raise standards in child protection and the safeguarding of sport participants, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and those affected by mega-sport events, establish or strengthen accessible reporting mechanisms and invest in awareness-raising. 

Ensuring Inclusive Access to Sport and Physical Activity 

To address the challenges posed by COVID-19 and related containment measures, members of the sport community have innovated rapidly to consider potential risks and how to mitigate them when organizing sports activities and have developed alternative approaches including online tools for sport practice and physical activity at home. Sport organizations have also created important virtual networks to engage children, young people, families and communities in staying healthy and active; in the process providing a platform for connection and social support beyond the delivery of sport programmes. Such innovative practices, if maintained post pandemic can expand access to these new learning tools and networks and ensure that the sport for development and peace sector is prepared to adapt again in the event of future shocks. While these online tools have proven invaluable, COVID-19 has brought to the fore how precarious access to ICTs is in many parts of the world. At the end of 2019, the ITU estimated that around 3.6 billion people remain offline.

The situation is much worse in Least Developed Countries where an average of two out of every ten people are online and the majority of the worlds refugees and other displaced, now almost 80 million people, are living without reliable internet and mobile connectivity.  Expanding access will require infrastructure (digital and products) and services (internet) to be put in place and to be accessible, usable and affordable. In some instances, in-person sport and physical activity events and opportunities continue to be carried out during the COVID-19 period. In such cases, it is critical that organizers take all necessary measures to ensure safety and protect public health, including by conducting risk assessment and putting in place risk mitigation measures. The WHO’s guidelines have been used by numerous sport federations to develop guidance for organizing their training and competitions, whether outdoors or indoors. There remains a need, however, for more tailored approaches for different activities, including those carried out at community level. In the context of the professional and elite sport world, the return to activity must continue to expand opportunities for participation that are equitable for all. The process of rebuilding can include continuing to close opportunity gaps for groups that have been traditionally excluded from the field of play. The sporting community may reduce these barriers by tailoring appropriate measures to address exclusionary factors such as cultural context, age, gender, and socio-economic considerations, and ensure that sport and physical activity are truly accessible. It is of particular importance to ensure that, in the return to activity, women’s sport and disability sport are not side-lined and continue to receive the significant investment experienced pre-COVID-19. Any reduction will represent a retrograde movement, reversing significant gains from a sporting, gender equality and disability rights perspective. Recovering better must also mean stronger support for other sectors of the industry from men’s professional sport, to continue to ensure equitable opportunities and growth across the entire eco-system. 

Ensuring Integrity in Sport 

Ensuring that the integrity of sport is at the center of efforts aimed at “recovering better” is essential for sport to be able to continue advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and to ensure that it emerges from the pandemic as strong as possible. It is therefore important that actions taken by governments, sport organizations and relevant stakeholders are focused on tackling corruption and crime both in and through sport. Including but not limited to persons with disabilities, older persons, LGBTI people, refugees, indigenous peoples, internally displaced people, stateless people and migrants and persons deprived of liberty. 

 Recommended actions include implementing commitments made through the adoption of relevant resolutions and ensuring that resources and support provided to sport during the pandemic are used for their intended purposes and not diverted for illicit gain. Key to this is ensuring that good governance measures are in place in sports organizations in order help reduce corruption risks and associated inequalities and injustices which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. However, it is equally important to ensure that anti-corruption regulations, policies and legislation are in place and implemented. Relevant national authorities should be provided with the assistance, resources and support required to effectively tackle corruption and crime in sport. To this end, it is key to develop effective cooperation frameworks between law enforcement, criminal justice authorities and sport organizations. Such efforts would be enhanced through the development and implementation of reporting mechanisms in sport, which would also require relevant leadership to act upon reports of wrongdoing when received. Devoting time and efforts to implementing the above recommendations would represent a major and significant contribution by the international community to strengthening the integrity of sport during these challenging times. This would also contribute to the emerging global framework around enhancing the contribution of sport to development and peace. Furthermore, to strengthen the protection of athletes and promote the ethics of sport, enhancing the integrity of sport requires implementation of commitments to anti-doping.

 Role of the United Nations System

 The United Nations system has an important role to play in supporting Member States to best use sport to “recover better” in the context of COVID-19. In 2020 and 2021, many UN International Convention Against Doping in Sport: Country Teams will be embarking on new Common Country Assessment and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework processes, which provide the framework for engagement between governments and the UN. The inclusion of sport for development and peace within these could contribute significantly to its increased utilization. The UN system can further support Member States and other relevant actors by increasing their provision of capacity development and technical cooperation services to support effective leveraging of sport in implementation of the relevant international normative frameworks and policy instruments. Such support can focus on advancing policies, strategies and programmes and data collection for the use of sport as an effective tool to advance sustainable development, promote inclusion, tolerance and respect, and build resilient societies. UN system entities, within their respective mandates, can also play an important role in raising awareness on the role that sport can play in “recovering better,” including through partnerships with mass media and international sporting bodies with national and international reach. Governments, the United Nations and the sporting community, including the sporting education community, can disseminate WHO and other guidance on individual and collective measures to counter the pandemic. Measures must be taken to reach communities that have limited access to the Internet and social media. Efforts must also be made to reach actors at all levels and across all facets of the sport sector, including in decision-making, sport education professional and community sport, and to support engagement of actors across the sector, and at all levels, to enable effective mechanisms for ensuring needs are identified and that important feedback and information on scalable solutions reach the ears of those who need to hear it. 

 For more information on UN publications on sport and COVID-19, as well as UN action plans, Initiatives and frameworks related to sport for development and peace