POSTED: May 10th 2011
NewsUpdate
Sport reminded that actions are essential to support worthy words
KEIR RADNEDGE in Geneva / Sports Features Communications
GENEVA, May 10: Princess Haya of Jordan warned a high-level international forum in Geneva that time is running short for world organisations, including sport, to co-operate on effective progress towards meeting global needs.
From her dual perspective as both a United Nations messenger of peace and as president of the international equestrian federation, she told the International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development that “there is not a moment to lose.”
A decade has passed since a UN Summit agreed an action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty targets of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The Geneva conference, at the United Nations, heard various addresses about the unique ability of sport to cut through barriers of political antagonism and intolerance. But putting that ‘ability’ to work was another matter entirely.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said that “policy without implementation is talk without action.”
Legacy project
Responding, IOC vice-president Mario Pescante reviewed examples of sport’s success in breaking down barriers and British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson set out the initial achievements and lessons learned from the International Inspirations legacy project evolving from London 2012.
Princess Haya, stressing time concerns, said: “I’ve never seen so much need in the world for MDGs to be delivered. There is not a moment to lose.
"The humanitarian agencies are struggling to cope with all these huge global crises. But we have never had so much opportunity when we have this unique partnership between sport and the UN to make this work. So it’s a huge time of crisis but also a huge time of hope.”
She pointed out to the conference that the IOC and the Olympic movement was “uniquely positioned” to mobilise the world’s youth in a practical way.
Keywords · International Forum · Princess Haya · Rogge · Pescante · Robertson
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