At the first African School Sport Forum, Dr. Gilles Klein, Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance Intergovernmental invites Senegal to organize a conference on the financing of sport in Africa

At the first African School Sport Forum, Dr. Gilles Klein, Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance Intergovernmental invites Senegal to organize a conference on the financing of sport in Africa

In Rabat - Morocco, Dr. Gilles Klein, Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance intergovernmental Organisation (WSAIGO), proposed to Senegal that it organize, in partnership with the International School Sport Federation, a conference on the financing of sport in Africa.

In their press conferences, the Heads of State of the Global North regularly remind us that: What Africa needs is funding to build the required and indispensable infrastructure. To finance article thirty-seven (37) of the United Nations 2030 program on sport, it will therefore be mandatory to invest.

In his conference, Dr. Klein pointed out that sustainable development and, particularly, Sports for Development and Peace initiatives, necessarily involve the mobilization of funds to support the financing of economic projects. The challenge is not little. The Countries of the global North are adopting austerity policies and reducing their official development assistance. Countries in the global South are struggling to finance their development but are seeking to become self-reliant thanks to their natural resources which constitute a funding potential.

The challenges confronting Countries have led to joint solutions between the public and the private sector. The association of Governments, Civil Society and Business leads to public-private partnerships that could be productive for sport. As part of national poverty reduction strategies, public-private partnerships are proposed in various sectors: agricultural and rural development, sustainable energies, sanitation and urban planning, infrastructure, land use planning, infrastructure, communication networks. Part of the funds raised by PPPs can be directed towards the construction of administrative infrastructures - for example the National Sports Institute - and local sports, the allocation of budgets to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the implementation of programs education and training.

The Major International SportsCorporations will also have to take a clear stand, between their specific interest in promoting their brands and their general interest in development through sport, to support the financing of the "Sports for Development and Peace" initiatives.

Dr. Klein, as Secretary General of the WSAIGO, proposes the creation,at an International level, of a special status of “Global Citizen Sponsorship” for sport related companies participatingin the funding of SDP initiatives, allowing them to benefit from tax credits and a SDP quality label.

He also introduces proposals for new ways and means of financing, that are in sync with an innovation economy:(1) Microfinance that turns young people into SDP entrepreneurs,mentioning the youth investment fund of the CONFEJES, which needs to be strengthened; (2) crowdfunding can be used to raise funds in the form of donations, loans or investments on a platform to contribute to a project; and (3) in the framework of recent innovations, financing through the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of digital crypto currencies or Tokens appears to be a funding tool for the future.

As part of his speech, the Secretary General of the WSAIGO, anintergovernmental organization that he co-founded10 years ago with Mr. Alain Lemieux, the President of the WSAIGO, Dr. Klein announced the Official Initial Token Offering (ITO)of the IGObit, the official token of the WSAIGO, its affiliatedentities, projects and initiatives that form the WSA Ecosystem. The IGObit, created for the Global Citizens, will be launched following its presentation at the Davos World Economic Forum being held from the 23^rd to the 26^thof January 2018. This initiative of the World Sports Alliance USA Non-profit organization, that is sponsored by the WSAIGO will allow funding and financing of partnerships and local projectsof innovative Green and Sustainable Technologies in the Solar Energy and Clean Potable Water sectors, as well as SDP initiatives within the thirty-three (33) Member States of the World Sports Alliance Intergovernmental Organization (WSAIGO.) in furtherance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr. Klein proposes to the Minister of the Republic of Senegal and to the President of the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar to organize, in partnership with WSAIGO and the Technical Committee on Youth and Culture, a conference on the financing and funding of sustainable development through sport (SDG). This proposal was also the subject of a more in-depth discussion between Gilles Klein and the SenegaleseDirector of Physical and Sports Activities, who represented the Minister of Sports of Senegal in Rabat with his colleague the Secretary General of School and University Sports Associations. This discussion concluded to the implementation of this conference after the Rabat forum.