World Sports Alliance - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 24

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 24: Qatar and Africa.

Qatar and African countries would, therefore, have in common to have natural resources that can finance their sustainable development. The comparison stops there. After visiting Aspire Academy we quickly understand what Youth sport would have to win to tie to the sustainable development of a country. How has Qatar proceeded to associate sport with sustainable development?

The country has based its development on the exploitation of its subsoil. After this British protectorate gained independence on 3 September 1971, it became the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, the country's first economic pillar. But Qatar soon realized that it had to look further, and predict the exhaustion of this resource. That is why the second pillar of its economy is based on diversification, ultimately essential for its survival, especially with investments abroad in various forms: industry, luxury, media or sports, etc. It would be sufficient for Africa to exploit its subsoil for itself. See next.

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World Sports Alliance International Governmental Organization - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 23

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 23: The subsoil of Qatar.

For the old physical education teacher who I am, Aspire Academy is a dream. I was able to skim it in 2013 and 2015, at the invitation of Doha GOALS, then the ICSS and UNESCO. Qatar's strategy is simple: fund its overall sporting strategy through subsoil revenues. Our organization then had as a socio-economic model to sign public-private partnerships with its member states. One of the objectives was the funding of youth sport, including the construction of sports academies for young people in Africa. Faced with the systematic refusal of the International Monetary Fund, an economist had recommended the solution to break the deadlock. Africa is full of minerals. Over the centuries, this subsoil has been plundered by the colonizing states, exploited by foreign companies, without the populations benefiting from this huge development potential. So, the subsoil was the only way for African states to regain control of their sustainable development. See next.

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World Sports Alliance IGO - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 22

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 22: Dream and reality.

In 1976, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the French Republic established the summer time thus: "You see, in France, we have no oil but we have ideas!". Following the dream of academies in Africa combining sports and studies, what is the reality for young people in a country that has oil and ideas: Qatar.

“Aspire Academy was founded with the goal to find and develop the best young male Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with high quality secondary school education (…) The identification of talents at an early age is important and therefore we cooperate with schools and sports federations; we also have Multi-sport Skills Development Centers (…) to promote sports and prepare talented youths before they reach the appropriate age to be considered for the Academy”.

The Academy conducts scouting in the clubs and schools and as has its Talent Centres with a long-term goals that some graduates will represent Qatar at the FIFA World Cup 2022. In athletics the graduate Mutaz Essa Barshim is the current World Champion and Olympic bronze medalist. In Africa we return to reality. See next.

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World Sports Alliance - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 21

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 21: ten million dollars.
 

Investors often ask us what concrete SDP operations they could fund. They now have some sources of inspiration. In Ethiopia, an Olympic champion creates a foundation for youth education. In Benin, a 16-year-old boy jumps 1m 95 cm. In Rabat, the ministers meeting at the first African forum of school sport call for the creation of sports-studies classes. Let's coordinate these three proposals. School sport helps identify sports talent. But in their schools, these young people do not have a timetable designed to educate themselves while training. The organization I work for had planned to build sports academies in its member states. This was the case in Burundi. A sports academy for young people was to be built in Bujumbura for a budget of 10 million dollars (photo). Until the International Monetary Fund opposes the partnership. Burundi could not sign a partnership because of its structural adjustment program with this Bretton Woods organization. It is, therefore, necessary to go through other means of financing, as recommended now by the World Bank in the case of forest protection. See next.

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World Sports Alliance IGO - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 20

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 20: an incredible high jumper!

Investors often ask us what concrete SDP operations they could fund. They should be inspired by a visit I made to the college of Adjara, a small town in Benin. With my colleague, director of the National Institute of Sports and Physical Education, we visited sports facilities used by school audiences. We went to Adjara, a village 7 kilometers from Porto Novo on the road to Nigeria. For tourists, Adjara is the market for goats, voodoo ceremonial objects and percussion instruments. For me, Adjara became the site of a tremendous sporting feat.

In the college, we were invited to attend a physical education class. Young people aged 15 to 16 were engaged in a high jump competition. The run-up and the reception were performed on sand obliging the jumper to use a costal style. That day, the bravest one jumped 1m 95 cm. Since then I have been wondering what talents could emerge on Olympic stadiums if we built local sports centers for youth in Africa. And if we build sports academies so that talents train while continuing their studies. These are great challenges for investors! See next.

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World Sports Alliance - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 19

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 19: the Afrolympic model (2).

Investors often ask us what concrete SDP operations they could fund. They should be inspired by the news of Haile Gebrselassie, Olympic champion turned businessman. In November 2017, Le Monde diplomatique told us about his new life that I summarize thus.

Since leaving the competition, the champion has been engaged in business by building an empire with over two thousand employees. But he thinks in terms of sustainable development. He wants to do business with honesty and good governance which according to him are obvious: "Above all, I now have ambition for my country. Conducted in honesty, business can transform people's lives”.

Haile summarizes the path that SDP investors must follow: "I started distributing around me, my family and my home village a long time ago. It is an ethical imperative in Africa ". More broadly, he wants to fund a foundation to educate the children of his country. Thus, using the ethical imperative, investors can help finance SDP initiatives such as local sports infrastructure, youth education programs or staff training, a national sports academy, etc. See next.

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World Sports Alliance IGO - The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 18

The right reasons to fund Sport for Development and Peace Initiatives (SDP). Reason 18: the Afrolympic model (1)

Investors often ask us what concrete SDP operations they could fund. There is no point in making long speeches about sport and sustainable development. Here is an example that must become their model to follow.

All athletes know the champion Haile Gebrselassie. A two-time Olympic champion in the 10,000m, in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2000 in Sydney, quadruple world champion in the distance between 1993 and 1999, he held 27 world records, including those of 5,000m and 10,000m, before running the marathon. In Berlin, he set a new world record, becoming the first man in history to pass in 2 hours 4 minutes.

We all remembered his childhood in the 1980s in the province of Arsi in Ethiopia. A story whose children today, most of the time sitting, stuffed with sugars and intoxicated by their screens should be inspired. Born into a family of ten, he had to travel a ten kilometers distance to get to school from the family farm. Like Abebe Bikila, former Ethiopian Olympic marathon champion in the 1960s, every day he ran to school. See next.

Follow an example of funding of SDP initiatives: https://www.igobit.com