The coalition for Sustainable development through Sport chaired by ICS with the support of AFD and JICA, was launched under the leadership of Public Development Banks (PDBs) in November 2020 in close collaboration with a selection of partner organisations (here).

Coalition’s members pledge to strengthen their financial resources, investments and expertise to build a sustainable world together, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The Coalition’s ambition is to expand over time by bringing in more PDBs and by fostering partnerships with other stakeholders and coalitions that share its vision, and are willing to contribute their diverse resources and abilities, including from the private sector, civil society, governments and academia.

The coalition recognizes that safe, inclusive, gender equitable and sustainable approaches being key to deliver impact through sport and commits to foster these principles.

At the FICS 2023, an open meeting of the Coalition was held and a side event was delivered, which enabled joint initiatives of Coalition members to be shared and a Roadmap of future actions to be proposed.

Progress

Joint Project Development

In line with the work program of the FICS 2023, one of the main outputs of the side event was to showcase the progress achieved on joint projects initiated by Coalition members to deploy innovative financing instruments, establish proof of concept and scale sport-based projects. This included joint initiatives on social outcome contracting and partnerships aimed at sustaining and scaling the impact of initial proof of concept investments involving different collaborations between the Latin American Development Bank, AFD, UNESCO, GIZ, International Olympic Committee and Paris 2024.

The side event also stressed that impact measurement is today a priority to provide robust evidence of the economic and social value of sport and hence drive further investment in the sector. As data and techniques for ex-ante measurement and monitoring of sports projects increase, in terms of the cost-benefit ratio of investments in grassroots sport, it is becoming increasingly clear that sport for development is an underutilized and powerful field for investors to make a measurable social and economic impact.
 

Analysis and insight generation

The Coalition tabled a series of publications and reports analysing access to the social and economic benefits of sport and evaluations of the efficacy, economic return and social impact of sport-based projects and investments. These publications can be accessed here.

 

Roadmap
 
The Coalition for Sustainable development through Sport has launched during FICS 2023 a roadmap to support public development banks to lever the value of sport as sustainable development tool including the catalytic effect of major sport events. The Coalition intends to capitalise on the impact of grassroots sport and development projects to convince other PDBs to invest in Sport and Development.

Insight generation on the social return on investment, growth potential of the sport value chain and de-risking sport-based projects

The Coalition identified key priorities for future insight generation and knowledge sharing among members. Analyzing the growth potential of the sport value chain across multiple markets, calculating the social return on investment of sport-based initiatives and de-risking sport based investment were among key priorities identified.

The coalition recognizes the value of financial and non-financial instruments to strengthen the role of sport as an enabler for sustainable development, and the importance of working together on financing, technical assistance and capacity-building on this issue.

Future FICS meetings

In addition to key forums linked to major sporting events, the Coalition committed to host open meetings at future FICS to provide a regular and consistent platform for other public development banks to access the knowledge and insight on sport-based investment generated by the Coalition, track the progress of joint projects being delivered by Coalition members and express interest in joining and collaborating with Coalition members.

 

Summit on “Sport for sustainable development”

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are unique by their commitment to social and environmental impact through sport. They offer a renewed opportunity, in the months that will lead up to this event, to highlight the importance of sport for our societies and connect actors from the private and public sectors, from the worlds of sport and development finance to invest further.

The French President Emmanuel Macron has just announced the organisation of a Summit on “Sport for sustainable development” in July 2024, before the opening ceremony of Olympic Games. This is an objective that Public Development Banks should aim to advocate together for a stronger embodiment of sport in public policies around the world. The focus of the private and public sector in the months to come will be on sport. Let’s take this opportunity to grow the game for greater impact through sport.

Invitation to other Public Development Banks to join the Coalition

The Coalition extended an invitation to other Public Development Banks seeking to maximise or further understand the potential of sport as an enabler of sustainable development to join the activities of Coalition through joint project development and insight generation initiatives.

The Chair of the coalition, ICS, along with the support of Co-chairs AFD and JICA and other members, will continue to implement an outreach plan to attract other Public Development Banks to join the coalition and invest in Sport for Development projects.