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Sport without frontiers

Djibril Diallo, Director of the UN New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace (Photo: Daniel Rihs)

Djibril Diallo, Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, is presenting this year’s Magglingen conference. Diallo took a break from his compering duties to participate in this Q&A.

Having come from the UN Development Programme to the Office of Sport for Development and Peace, how do you explain the link between sport and development?

Djibril Diallo: Sport knows no frontiers and is a uniting factor whatever your ethnic background, colour, culture or economic status. When you are talking about fighting hunger and poverty, you need to put all the life forces together and sports has the capacity to convene this power to make people work for specific areas.

Second sport is a major economic development factor; the sports industry, development of equipment and other means lead to economic development so we at the UN are turning to sports to promote sustainable development.

Across the globe, there are millions and millions of people whose basic needs are not being met, be it hunger, access to healthcare or education. How do you persuade these people that sports can help them to a better life?

Djibril Diallo: I will do it at two levels: one I will make sure that, through national and international efforts, their basic needs are met. Secondly, I will show them that they have in themselves the secret of their own liberation. Nobody can come from outside and just hand out food, shelter and clothing to somebody and then develop them. Everybody needs to be assisted but help yourself and God will help you. With all the resources we have in this world, it is unconscionable that 1.5 billion people will go to bed hungry every night. That’s just unacceptable. Sport enables us to have healthy bodies and you say, “Healthy minds in healthy bodies”. So, if you promote sport, you promote healthy lifestyles and education for life.

What’s your personal interest in sport for development?

Djibril Diallo: My interest is really to use new tools to bring about a better world. We have used partnerships with civil society, non-governmental organisations and the private sector. Now we need new actors and this is where the sports world comes in.

The International Year of Sport and Physical Education (IYSPE) is nearly over. Isn’t there a danger that the public will quickly lose their awareness of the role sport can play in development? After all, a year is not a long time to get such a message across.

Djibril Diallo: The UN has had partnerships with the sport world since its inception. Sport has been used as a tool in development for the past 60 years. What having 2005 as the IYSPE does is to add more pressure and a sense of urgency, to give a shot in the arm to the efforts made in this area. It’s not an isolated exercise; it’s supposed to accelerate the process of using the power of sport to bring about not only sustainable development but peace throughout this world. So there has been a momentum created this year and the idea is to build on that momentum to put in an effort at the higher level in a number of ways. One, sport needs to be incorporated into the development agenda. Two, both developed and undeveloped countries need to put more resources, financial and otherwise, into sport for development and peace.