Sport as an Enabler of Sustainable Development

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 12 Sport for development and peace, published in 2024.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2018–2024

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2024	A/RES/79/8	Sport as an enabler of sustainable development	4,599	82%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/27	Sport as an enabler of sustainable development	4,063	86%Compare
2020	A/RES/75/18	Sport as an enabler of sustainable development	3,616	74%Compare
2018	A/RES/73/24	Sport as an enabler of sustainable development	2,944	–

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 2	Inclusive social development	59

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 2	Inclusive social development	59	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

5 reports · 2020–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/306	Unlocking the full potential of sport for development and peace : towards more effective, inclusive and evidence-based action report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/8
2024	A/79/289	United by our common goals : ensuring the impact of sport on sustainable development and peace report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/27
2022	A/77/161	Sport : catalyst for a better, stronger recovery for all report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/75/18
2020	A/75/155/Rev.1	Sport : a global accelerator of peace and sustainable development for all report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/24
2020	A/75/155	Sport : a global accelerator of peace and sustainable development for all report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/24

What subjects does this mandate have?

2 subjects

Sports Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

28 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that sport is an important enabler of sustainable development, and recognizes the growing contribution of sport to the realization of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities as well as to physical and mental health, education and social inclusion objectives;

Encourages all relevant stakeholders to emphasize and advance the use of sport as a vehicle to foster sustainable development and, inter alia, strengthen education, including physical education, for children and young persons, including persons with disabilities and persons living with rare diseases, prevent disease, including non‑communicable diseases, and drug abuse, promote physical and mental health, realize gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, realize the empowerment of young people, foster inclusion and well-being, promote healthy and active ageing, help to ensure the participation of everyone without discrimination of any kind, promote tolerance, mutual understanding and respect and facilitate social inclusion, conflict prevention and peacebuilding;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “United by our common goals: ensuring the impact of sport on sustainable development and peace”,¹³ reviewing progress towards the implementation of the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace between 2022 and 2024, focusing on progress in five priority areas of impact and highlighting ways and opportunities for strengthening its implementation within the United Nations system, in line with the respective mandates of United Nations system organizations amid current global challenges;

¹³A/79/289.

Welcomes the growing attention by the international community to exploring and leveraging the role of sport and physical activity in the attainment of development objectives and the enjoyment of human rights, and in this regard acknowledges the endorsement by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of the Kazan Action Plan and its sport policy follow-up framework, adopted at the sixth International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport, as a voluntary, overarching reference for fostering international convergence among policymakers in the fields of physical education, physical activity and sports, as well as a potential tool for aligning international and national policy in these fields,¹⁴ and the endorsement by the World Health Assembly of the global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030;¹⁵

¹⁴See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Records of the General Conference, Thirty-ninth Session, Paris, 30 October–14 November 2017, vol. 1, Resolutions, sect. IV, resolution 30.

¹⁵See World Health Organization, document WHA71/2018/REC/1, resolution 71.6.

Encourages Member States, the entities of the United Nations system, including its peacekeeping missions, special political missions and integrated peacebuilding missions, sport-related organizations, federations and associations, athletes, the media, civil society, academia and the private sector to draw on these frameworks, as appropriate, in a coherent and integrated manner, to advance the consolidation of sport in cross-cutting development and peace strategies and the incorporation of sport and physical education in international, regional and national development and peace policies and programmes, on the basis of standards, indicators and benchmarks, as well as to ensure the monitoring and evaluation of such strategies, policies and programmes;

Urges Member States that have not yet done so to consider signing, ratifying, acceding to and implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto,¹⁶ the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women¹⁷ and the International Convention against Doping in Sport;

¹⁶United Nations, Treaty Series, vols. 2171, 2173 and 2983, No. 27531.

¹⁷Ibid., vol. 1249, No. 20378.

Calls upon the relevant entities of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, within their respective mandates and existing resources, to strengthen system-wide coherence and to increase and expand internal coordination, and encourages their ongoing collaboration to advance the role of sport as an enabler of sustainable development, in line with the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace, to maximize the potential of sport and physical activity to contribute to the achievement of the Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda and other internationally agreed development goals, and national peacebuilding and State-building priorities;

Encourages Member States to integrate sport and quality physical education and activity into national strategies for sustainable development, taking note of the contributions that sport makes to health, to promote safe sport as a contributor to the health and well-being of individuals and communities and to effectively use all the opportunities offered by sport and by its values as a vehicle for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in order to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and to address the adverse impacts of climate change, and encourages the United Nations system to support Member States in such efforts;

Also encourages Member States to provide institutional structures, appropriate quality standards, policies and competencies and to promote academic research and expertise in the field to enable ongoing training, capacity-building and education of physical education teachers, coaches and community leaders in sport for development and peace programmes, and equally encourages United Nations entities to continue to provide research, normative and policy guidance to further advance the engagement of Governments and other stakeholders in their use of sport for the achievement of development and peace, accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and strengthen efforts in that area;

Further encourages Member States, in accordance with their national priorities, to use sport as a lever for education and employment, for health and nutrition, for gender equality and the inclusion of persons with disabilities, for sustainability and hosting major sporting events, and for financing and measuring the impact of sport for sustainable development;

Invites Member States and international sport organizations to continue to assist developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, in their capacity-building efforts in sport and physical education by providing national experiences and best practices, as well as financial, technical and logistic resources for the development of sport-based programmes, including for youth and for sustainable development, and further invites the United Nations system to strengthen the provision of inter-agency capacity development and technical cooperation services and financial assistance, as appropriate, to support the development and implementation of national policies and approaches to maximizing the contributions of sport for development and peace, as well as sport for all, without discrimination of any kind;

Invites Member States to work together with the United Nations system and other stakeholders to increase engagement and cooperation with one another to harness digital technology to advance sport as a tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to support sport and physical activity at home, while broadening access to sport training and physical activity opportunities through online platforms;

Notes the lack of centralized global socioeconomic data and statistics on sport, acknowledges progress in the development and adoption of common indicators to measure the contribution of physical education, physical activity and sport, and encourages the United Nations system to continue its ongoing work with the Commonwealth and other international partners to establish a shared indicator framework, taking note of action 2 of the Kazan Action Plan, adopted at the sixth International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport and endorsed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;

Encourages relevant stakeholders, and in particular the organizers of sport events, to use and leverage such events to promote and support sport for development and peace initiatives and to strengthen existing and build new partnerships, coordinate common strategies, policies and programmes and increase coherence and synergies, while raising awareness at the local, national, regional and global levels;

Encourages Member States to adopt best practices and means to promote the practice of sport and physical activities among all members of society, and in this regard welcomes initiatives to adopt dedicated education, health, youth and sport days, including specialized sport days, at the national and local levels, as a means to promote physical and mental health and well-being and cultivate a sport culture in society;

Also encourages Member States to strengthen collaboration with sport organizations as well as civil society, including non‑governmental organizations, that implement sport for development and peace initiatives, including by enabling partnerships and strengthening local capacities, as appropriate, to monitor impacts and scale up actions, while also noting the role of the private sector, national and international sports federations and organizations, and all relevant national initiatives in this regard;

Supports the independence and autonomy of sport as well as the mission of the International Olympic Committee in leading the Olympic movement and of the International Paralympic Committee in leading the Paralympic movement;

Notes the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, Member States and civil society for the observance of the Olympic Truce, and encourages future hosts of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games and other Member States to support the effective implementation of the Truce and to use sport as a tool to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict during and beyond the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games;

Encourages relevant entities involved in delivering mega sport events to respect applicable laws and international principles, including the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework,¹⁸ noting other ongoing initiatives in this regard, at every stage of the event life cycle, to safeguard the many societal benefits that hosting such events can contribute;

¹⁸A/HRC/17/31, annex.

Calls upon Member States to enhance their efforts to prevent and fight against corruption and organized crime in sport, including by supporting efforts aimed at enhancing cooperation between and among law enforcement authorities, relevant United Nations agencies and sports organizations, facilitating the exchange of expertise and the dissemination of information and raising awareness within sports organizations and the sports community, and through educational programmes, of the threat posed by corruption and organized crime in sport, and also calls upon Members States to make use of available tools by relevant agencies in accordance with the fundamental principles of their legal systems;

Calls upon Member States and the sport sector to enhance their efforts to prevent and fight trafficking in persons, in particular of children and women, as well as forced labour, sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and all forms of violence in sports;

Encourages Member States, in particular those committed to promoting sport as a tool for development and peace, and other stakeholders, such as international sports federations, organizers of sport events, sports clubs and leagues, foundations and the private sector, especially businesses involved in the sports and development sector, to continue and intensify their support for the work of the United Nations system on sport for development and peace, including through voluntary contributions and the establishment of innovative partnerships to advance policy and programme development in the field of sport for development and peace;

Encourages the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat to continue its work on sport for development and peace, including by updating the 2018 United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace, and encourages Member States to support the Department in its efforts, including through voluntary contributions;

Invites the Secretary-General to strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat, within existing resources and through voluntary contributions, to support and coordinate the implementation of the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace across the United Nations system and to strengthen normative and policy guidance and the evidence on the impact of sport on the Sustainable Development Goals through the monitoring and evaluation of United Nations policies and programmes using quantitative methods and disaggregated data, in full consultation with Member States;

Encourages Member States to actively participate in the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace, an informal group of permanent missions to the United Nations in New York and Geneva serving as a platform to promote dialogue and exchange of views and information, including on ongoing initiatives, programmes and partnerships, between Member States and all relevant stakeholders, as well as to facilitate and encourage the integration of sport to support the achievement of the United Nations goals and objectives;

Also encourages Member States, with the support of the United Nations system, within existing resources, and other relevant stakeholders, to explore ways and means to integrate sport into various development objectives in the review and follow-up processes of relevant development frameworks and agendas, including the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the reviews of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and of the achievement of the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,¹⁹ the follow-up to the World Programme of Action for Youth,²⁰ the follow-up processes of Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the review and follow-up processes of the 2030 Agenda, including the high-level political forum on sustainable development and the political declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non‑communicable diseases;

¹⁹Resolution 61/295, annex.

²⁰Resolution 50/81, annex, and resolution 62/126, annex.

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session on the implementation of the present resolution, including a detailed needs assessment of the capacity of the Secretariat to implement the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace through 2030 and beyond;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eighty-first session the item entitled “Sport for development and peace”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?