15 December 2004

　　The International Workshop on Sport for Development opened today at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Geneva. At the opening ceremony, Gunilla Lindberg, a Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on sport for development and peace; and Bruce Jenks, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Deputy Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships, presented their projects on sport’s contribution to development in general.　　

　　Millennium Development Goals

　　“Achieving the Millennium Development Goals requires a general mobilisation, not just by governments but also by society as a whole, by every one of us”, stressed UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. “Creating networks as powerful as those of the National Olympic Committees and the UNDP is sure to generate an extremely positive dynamic for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.”　　

　　“Sport gives structure to individuals and unites communities”

　　“Through the values it transmits and its capacity to bridge social, cultural or religious divisions, sport is an essential factor in the development work needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals. Because it gives structure to individuals and unites communities, sport is an essential factor in this mobilisation”, stressed the former Swiss President and UN Special Adviser, Adolf Ogi.　　

　　Integral part of civil society

　　For her part, IOC Vice-President Gunilla Lindberg underlined that “the sports movement is an integral part of civil society and is both directly affected and concerned by issues related to social and economic development. Let me reaffirm today the IOC’s willingness to play its role in the long-term development of this process by contributing through its main field of expertise: sport.”　　

　　In Geneva and Lausanne

　　The International Workshop on Sport for Development is currently being organised in Geneva and Lausanne by the IOC, the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on sport for development and peace and the UNDP.