UN-Habitat & IOC Team Up to Promote Sport in Urban Environments

September 29, 2023 

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has partnered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to promote and support physical activity in urban environments. The initiative intends to highlight the importance of sport for the sustainable development of cities and enhancing the quality of life for residents. 

By 2050, almost 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities – a sizeable increase from the current 55%. This makes cities an integral part of sustainable development and acheiving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The partners want to strengthen sports role as an enabler of this, leveraging UN-Habitat's extensive network of city leaders and officials. 

The ultimate goal of the initiative is cities that thrive as hubs where sports, physical activity and active recreation spur improved health, reduced gender and social inequality, environmental sustainability and peace. Beginning in November, investments will be made in projects across five cities in Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region. Over the course of three years, the intial focus will target: 

• Integrating Sport and Physical Activity into cities’ analysis and planning tools to help create urban environments that encourage active lifestyles and access for more communities to the benefits of sport. 
• Capacity-building of municipal authorities, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and sporting bodies, sharing knowledge on the role of sport and physical activity in sustainable development. 
• Investment in urban sports infrastructure refurbishment and programming with seed funding and financing to promote access to and inclusion in the benefits of sport in targeted communities. 
• Producing guidelines for the integration of sport into urban development policies. 

Working in over 90 countries worldwide, UN-Habitat has a vision of “a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world”. It works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities – promoting urbanization as a positive force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty. 

This collaboration will specifically support SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and the UN-Habitat’s SDG Cities Initiative, which enables cities to accelerate efforts to achieve the SDGs. By offering support in research, evidence-based planning, capacity-building, project financing and certification, the initiative intends to impact one billion lives across 1,000 cities by 2030. 

“From our longstanding experience of putting sport at the service of society, we know that we have to bring the benefits of sport to where the people are – this means in the cities and urban areas of our world,” said IOC President Thomas Bach, at the UN-Habitat – Local 2030 Coalition event. “We are honored to sign a new partnership with UN-Habitat to support SDG 11, to make cities more resilient and sustainable.”

The partnership builds on the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020, Olympic Agenda 2020+5 and Olympism365 strategy – all of which focuses on strengthening the role of sport for sustainable development and an important enabler of the SDGs. 

Source: IOC