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.

Seminar of October 5 Program: "Achieving SDG's through sport partnerships and institutional responses for greater coherence and effectiveness"

The General Secretariat – World Sports Alliance – Intergovernmental Organization — 7 October 2017 at 07:45. This press release reiterates the essence of the official release issued by the organizers of the seminar.

Lausanne, 5 October 2017 – In the Olympic capital, at the Palais Beaulieu, more than 130 representatives of International and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGO), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Sports Federations (IFs) and International Civil Society, met for a seminar, studied and discussed strategies and possible forms of collaboration to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through and with the world of sports.

The UN agencies presented their programs and actions in favor of sports. The sport and humanitarian intergovernmental organizations, such as the Commonwealth or the World Sports Alliance, presented their proposals. The Universities of Lausanne and Geneva and the International Academy of Sports Science and Technology (AISTS) organized and moderated the debates that aimed to:

•  Improve the coherence and effectiveness of collaborative action;

•  Broaden knowledge of the different partnerships within the United Nations system, the 
IOC, IFs, and other relevant actors and their respective activities in this regard;

•  Provide resources, practical tools, and information to better achieve common goals;

•  Encourage the creation of new partnerships.

Practical tools were made available and exchanged and new clusters of knowledge were identified. 

The Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance meets with the Ministers of the African continent countries responsible for school sports,in Morocco

Gilles Klein, Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance (WSAIGO) will touch upon the renewal of the sector of Sport for Development and Peace, following the closing of the United Nations’ Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), in May 2017, and, in particular,will discuss the question of financing of Youth Sport in Africa.

New York, January 11, 2018.

Gilles Klein, Secretary General of WSAIGO as well as a well-known expert in the field of Sport for Development and Peace, was invited by the Minister of National Education of Morocco whois bringing together the Ministers of the African continent countries responsible for school sports. The Ministers are meeting together within the framework of the first African Sports Forum, co-organized by Morocco with the International School Sports Federation, comprised of 80 countries from five continents. This federation will organize the “Gymnasiades” in Marrakech, in May 2018, which are sometimes referred to as Olympic Games ofSchool Sport.

Gilles Klein will discuss the following question: To transform Africa through Sports: Yes, but How? By developing the following arguments.

According to Nelson Mandela, sport has the power to change the World because it is a means of harmonious interaction with others. To transform the World is also the challenge of the 2030 Program to achieve the United Nations’Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2008, His Majesty Mohammed VI defined for Morocco an ambitious and realistic sport policy. This hypothesisof the contribution of the World transformation through sport calls for solutions adapted to the African continent. The conference presents five challenges for the transformation of Africa through sport which lead to five proposals for the Ministers of the African countries.

Sport 2030. It is a must to know on which field are currently played physical education and school sport, more generally the sport for all. These sectors suffer from a decline in public attention and from budgetary cutbacks. The entire South suffers more than the entire North.

Sport 2030.  We will have to better bring the team together. The World and the sports industry are very fragmented. Africa has too few alliances.

Sport 2030. On the field, we will have to commit further. Since 2003, the World and the sports industry has not supported the “Sports for development and Peace” sector enough, particularly in Africa. 

Sport 2030. We will need to invest. In Africa, sustainable development necessarily passes through the mobilization of short-term funds to support the funding of economic projects from which sports must be a beneficiary.

Sport 2030. We will need to reinforce the capacities of the competitors. The training of young people and their support systemremain insufficient, particularly in Africa. Human resources imply a long-term investment.

The proposals made to the Ministers of the African countries will be the subject of a workshop for the launching of concrete initiatives.  During this workshop, Gilles Klein,asthe Secretary General of the World Sports Alliance, will meet the Ministers of this Organization’s Member States.

Sports diplomacy issues (1): No history! Dr. Gilles Klein, 31 March 2017

Sports diplomacy issues (1): No history!

  

Dr. Gilles Klein, 31 March 2017

  

Kilimanjaro

Africa is a continent which is at the centre of our daily lives. Tourists remember its polish: photos of safaris, animals coming to drink at watering holes, sunsets, the summit of Kilimanjaro. These tourists experience difficulties in reading the Africa beneath the polish. The Ol Doinyo Oibor glaciers could disappear before 2030. More prosaically, in our daily life, we have adopted the coffee that grows wild in Ethiopia. We use cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo to operate our mobile phones and tablets. Some of us whistle, others love jazz and the sounds coming from Africa.

Ubuntu

The more humanistic have taken from Africa a philosophy, that of Ubuntu. A word used by Nelson Mandela to symbolize the reconciliation process following apartheid. The word conveys the idea of a shared humanity: “I am, because we are all”. The new world Encyclopedia defines it thus: “It involves an appreciation of the traditional beliefs and the awareness that the actions of an individual have their roots in the past and will have important consequences in the future. A person who exercises Ubuntu understands where he or her is in the universe and consequently, he/she is able to interact harmoniously with other individuals.

Africa

Missions often take us to Africa to try to promote youth sport. In order to be prepared, we apply the Ubuntu principle, to understand the past in order to help to build the future. For me, this work became a passion, starting with the hard work of understanding Africa: uncertainties of the colonial era, times of independence, single party states, the Françafrique vicissitudes, more generally of the neo-colonization, for example with China, the conquest of African Unity, the intriguing longevity of the presidents and the chaotic adventures of the democracy, etc.

Know

To be prepared assumes also having knowledge of the member states of our intergovernmental organization. Learning about the Congo river before noting its width in Kinshasa, its power in Inga, its impact on the ocean. Knowing the effects of drought on the annual cotton production in Mali and the economies of the countries during a meeting with the minister of agriculture. Remembering Vénuste Nyongabo’s Olympic feat whilst discussing youth and sport with the minister of Burundi.  Experiencing the traditions with a Royal Python round my neck in Ouidah in Benin. Considering solutions to young graduates’ unemployment with the Moroccan minister of sports.

Sharing?

But ubuntu is far from being something shared by all. In 2012, I remember a mission in a member state in Central Africa. A press conference was organized with the Presidency of the Republic, so we could present our project. The financing of it was based on the sanitation and electrification of the capital city. During the presentation, I mentioned the role of the successive presidents who built and created the capital.

No history

The President’s communication adviser interrupted the exchange with the press thus: “here we do not talk about past presidents. What matters is what the current president is doing”. The conviction and self-assurance of the remark and some sharp practice from the interlocutor had shaken the attempts of the white man who desperately tried to be “unbounded”. Go to hell Ubuntu, here there is no history, no memory. Here, only the providential man of the moment is important, without whom the country might slip into chaos. Was this an accident of history? There would no future for this political vision. Two months later, the country sank into chaos, due to interethnic conflict.

Disease

This incident shows that Ubuntu should not divert us from a certain pragmatism in the relations with our member states. Quite often, the reality confirms the words of the communications adviser of that Central African country. The politics of the country can be summarized by the mandates of the current president. On this matter, the commentators familiar with African news do not mince their words. Béchir Ben Yahmed, of Jeune Afrique, diagnoses an African disease.

Politicians

To his mind, two kinds of politicians are responsible. Those who are already in power and maintaining it at all costs. Those who are looking forward to replacing them, but are indulging in “delicacies and poison of election rigging”. Fortunately, Africa is changing, with more and more political leaders respecting the Constitution and undermining their mandate with no fear of a change in power. In these countries, the elections respect the planned agenda, the candidates accept the result of the vote, observers validate the vote, power changes allow the renewal of the political, diplomatic, economic and social projects.

Diplomat

Between ubuntu and the African disease, our modest organization attempts to promote and finance youth sport in its member states. A matter which is not, and one can easily understand it, a priority in the developing countries. Why promote sport when the main concerns and emergencies are cross-border and ethnic conflicts, wars, arid zones, hunger, agricultural development, more generally economic ones, governance issues, etc. That is why, we need to demonstrate a certain diplomacy, or rather two kinds of diplomacies. The first is common sense, as taught by the communication adviser previously mentioned, the second is political.

Skill

As the term is commonly understood, diplomacy is firstly the skill, and the tact, that a negotiator brings into the conduct of a specific affair. Admittedly, it requires the ability to convince a minister of sports of the need to promote youth sport. A minister who we know is primarily focused on the qualifying of the soccer team to the African cup of Nations. The reader will refer to our previous article “Break the shop window”. In our mission, we totally agree with the definition which Siegfried provided about a Latin, in “L’âme des peoples” (the soul of peoples): “subtle and skilful, prudent, economical and rough merchant, he succeeds better in the small businesses, though he is also able to succeed in the large ones: everywhere flexibility, diplomacy, even intrigue, he is in his element”.

Policy

To fulfill our mission of convincing the ministers of the developing countries, we prefer the second diplomacy strand: the branch of politics that concerns relations between states, the art of a government or an organization’s representation abroad or the administration of international affairs, the management and implementation of the international affairs between states and between organizations. Our organization as a part of this perspective assumes that their executive bodies explicitly define the kind of diplomacy they want to follow. To conclude this episode, we will define what we understand as sports diplomacy.

Sports diplomacy

The rise of sports interstate competitions, their media coverage, but also the importance of “soft power” in diplomacy, leads the countries to use sport in their international influence strategies. In that case, we refer to sports diplomacy, understood as every use of sport by a country in conducting its foreign policy. This use can take several forms; organization of sports events, sports successes, sports meeting activating a reconciliation in contrast to an opposition, etc. The literature proposes many case studies, to which our readers are referred.

Process

When a state, an organization attempts to define sports diplomacy, two main questions arise for their decision-makers, either minister of foreign affairs, ministers of sports of a state, Secretary-General of an intergovernmental organization. The first question can be expressed thus; among the processes of sports diplomacy used by the states, the organizations, which are the right ones for a specific institution. In the coming episodes, we will develop two categories and a diversity of strategies referred to in national sports diplomacies at a given time.

Benefits

There is a second question: to what extent the state or the organization, receiving the dividends of sports diplomacy strategy, planned these spin-offs. In the blog, we do not have the necessary time to address planning and success rates of an appropriate strategy. Otherwise, if our young organization had already defined its sports diplomacy model, only the concrete results from our model will guarantee our sustainability or demonstrate our failure.

Next: 7 April 2017 – Sport diplomacy issues (2): The limits of the intuition.

Soccer and Fintech 1: A contribution to the financing of youth sport (1. the context) Dr. Gilles Klein,24 March 2017

Soccer and Fintech 1: A contribution to the financing of youth sport (1. the context)

Dr. Gilles Klein 

Episodes

This blog lets us put seemingly remote universes in touch. Clearly, soccer has something to do with finance. Soccer is a booming sector in the sports economy. But how could financial technologies assist with the financing of soccer, or moreover youth sport? In two episodes, I would like to explain our thinking and our process. The first builds upon the case of three Cameroonian soccer players, thus explaining the context. However, let us start with the economy of soccer.

Market

Soccer is a market with an estimated turnover of 400 billion worldwide. British soccer, as early as the 1880s, sought to develop a real national, then international, business. A market in which the revenues increase just like the expenses, currently flirting with foolishness when compared to the salaries of most of the spectators in Europe. What can we say about Africa, the spectator of F.C. Barcelona with Messi and the African players at the African cup of Nations?

Revenues

Since 1880, the nature and amount of revenues have changed. At the outset, the sales at the turnstiles financed the adoption of professionalism and the construction of large stadiums.  Since the 1960s, the advertising industry has taken possession of the stadiums. A sector that continued to grow via the broadcast of the matches and the radio and television rights, first of the European cup matches, then national championships, at the beginning of the 1980s. Currently, related products and merchandising represent significant benefits as well.

Expenses

The nature and amount of the expenses have changed as well. Low for a long time, the players’ salaries increased with the appearance of contracts during the 1970s, leading to the huge salaries of Messi or Ronaldo. Players’ transfers are the subject of bidding contests. The salaries of great coaches, such as Mourinho, Ferguson or Ancelotti, follow the same process. Let us note the development of facilities, the large stadiums becoming the effigy of the major multinational companies.

Cameroon

African soccer takes place in this market. The African cup of Nations is a much-awaited encounter. On 5th February at the “Amitié” stadium in Libreville-Gabon, Cameroon wins its fifth cup beating Egypt. Cameroon sometimes called “Africa in miniature” takes revenge. Defeated in 1984 and 2005 by Egypt in the final of that event, the Indomitable Lions defeat the Pharaohs. In the stands, Roger Milla, the man of the 1990 World cup in Italy and Samuel Eto’o, best number nine in the history of F.C. Barcelona, express their joy.

Aboubacar

After the first half under pressure, the Indomitable Lions equal in the fifty-ninth minute. Two minutes before the end of the match, Vincent Aboubacar, our first Cameroonian player, frees his team, his supporters and his country. Coming in at half time, he offers the cup to Cameroon fifteen years after its last taste of continental glory. If Benjamin Moukanjo has been the man of the match, Aboubacar is the very symbol of the Lions. Thanks to his power in attack, he challenged the Egyptian defense which is close to breaking point, until this liberation. The team’s liberation was also the player’s liberation. Five times on the substitutes’ bench during the six qualifying matches, he becomes a decisive provider in the semi-final and liberator in the final.

Elite

For Vincent Aboubacar, this 88th minute is also the founding of a career. Sixth of seven children, he was spotted in the Coton sports club of Garoua, the main city of the northern region of Cameroon. While continuing his education, he begins a junior soccer player’s career. Very soon, he chooses to join the elite and becomes best goal scorer of his championship. Eighteen years old, he is a member of the national selection for the 2010 World cup. The press sees him as Samuel Eto’o’s successor. His capabilities allow him to have access to a national European championship. He is recruited by the first league club of Valenciennes – France, where he plays for five years, then Lorient-France for two years. He pursues his career within other European championships: F.C. Porto – Portugal, then BJK Besiktas - Turkey

Galley

Yannick Abega Onana Ezembe, our second Cameroonian player, has been less lucky. The newspaper Le Monde[1] reported his experiences, which I summarize thus. The hard work starts in Spring 2006. A cousin of his father places him in the hands of a Spanish agent, who has come to recruit players. “We were almost 500” he remembers. Extremely pleased, he travels to another tournament. After his return, he discovers the contract signed by his parents, the agent and his cousin.

Dear cousin

This one becomes his legal guardian. Her work? To select young people and put them in touch with agents. The tandem cousin-agent proposes to him a list of prestigious clubs, such as Real Madrid. He goes there, but the travel remains the responsibility of the family. Thirteen years old, it is the first trip in a long series. He spends three seasons at Real Majorque. He is welcomed by a foster family and enrolled in school, but without receiving any money. Under pressure from the family and club, the agent gives forty Euros to him… over two months. He set out then for Barcelona, Manchester, Almeria. He is still in an uncertain legal position: “I was often faced with an irregular situation”. He doesn’t know quite if the semblance of a contract was ever signed with a club.

Solidarity

Yannick, running away from his agent, ends up in Paris on a platform of Austerlitz station. He meets Jean-Claude Mbvoumin. This one is the third Cameroonian player of our episode. At the end of his career in 2000, he founds the “Foot solidaire” association that raises awareness and works to protect young players and fight against the trade in minor football players. He helps his young fellow citizen, then directs him to childhood social assistance. The Abega case that joins numerous others, leads the « Foot solidaire » association to lodge a complaint at FIFA for child trafficking, abuse, exploitation, fraud against the parents”.

Tax

From the Abega’s case, the economist Wladimir Andreff undertakes an analysis of the international mobility of African soccer players, particularly minors. He proposes taxing the international transfers from developing countries in such a way as to reduce the number of cases, similar to that of young Abega. The “Coubertobin” tax on the transfers of young Africans to the European clubs aims to limit “muscles exodus” from South to North and finance the development of the country of origin. Could a tax on the transfers finance African sport? It is a constructive proposal that could be extended to other financial transactions. We will analyze these solutions in the next episode of Soccer and Fintech.

Next: March 3, 2017 – Soccer and Fintech: a contribution to the financing of youth sport (2. the solutions).

[1] Newspaper Le Monde 2009, http://bit.ly/2kmLjIC

Newpaper Le Monde 2012, http://bit.ly/2jYaaUO

Ready to start up!: design and dissemination of the « Sport & development » program

Ready to start up!: design and dissemination of the « Sport & development » program

Dr. Gilles Klein

Tools

The fourth blog article finished thus: “to maintain the relationships with the world of sport in our member states, our organization shall largely disseminate the tools already designed relating to the contribution of sport to Sustainable Development Goals”. After having recapped on the mission entrusted to our organization by the international civil society, I would like to now report on the work being carried out on the relationship between sport and those objectives targeted by the United Nations, as well as to announce the dissemination of tools.

Return to the sources

First, what has sports to do with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), previously Millennium Development Goals, which called upon 193 countries of our planet on the horizon towards 2030? For us, all began in Rabat, Morocco in 2007. But before, let’s come back to the context of our initiative. 2000: at the United Nations, the heads of states validate the Millennium declaration. 2001: they record the MDDs. 2002: the Secretary-General requests a work team on sports at the service of development and peace. 2003: that team delivers its report. 2006: in sports as in other sectors, the international civil society considers that the results do not match the ambitions posted.

Foundation

The latter called on the trainers in the different professional areas to show how they could meet the objectives and make them accessible to the world's youth. It wishes to create centers of excellence in support of MDGs. 2007: the Intergovernmental organization World Sports Alliance is created to educate young people and train their staff to MDGs through sport.

Declaration

The establishment of our organization will lead to the so-called Rabat Declaration. That declaration was introduced in Geneva at the substantive session of 2007 by the late Mrs. Zoulikha Nasri, President of the Foundation Mohamed V for solidarity, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This session took place within the Annual ministerial review: strengthening efforts
 to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through the global partnership for development.

Centre of excellence

The declaration announces the establishment of the world centre of excellence in physical education, sport, and MDGs in those terms: “Encourage other countries in Africa, Latin America and throughout the world to create their MDG centres of excellence and to join WSA in order to create WSA community and sports centres locally and encourage WSA to contribute actively, together with IAESCSI and UN-NGO-IRENE, to the creation of the world MDG centre of excellence in Geneva, in July 2007, so that our national and regional centres of excellence can benefit from its work, expertise and validation of MDG training programmes”.

Ready to start-up!

Once the world center of excellence dedicated to sport is created, original documents are required to show the relationship between sport and MDGs, now SDGs. 2008: programs are created, authors contacted; databases recorded; first books written and edited.

Sport & development

To provide the trainers of the member states of our organization with all the necessary equipment, four specific programs are developed as part of a generic program called “Sport & development”.

Training

This program collects the training requests from the executives of Ministries of Youth and Sports and training teams of institutes or faculties on Youth and Sport policies issues and education in the MDGs through sport. It meets these requests through training offers within the Member States.

Sport education

The ”Sports, Education & Development” program deals with sports education for teachers, students and youth using two collections. The ”EPS en poche” collection studies teaching by abilities in sports activities.

Sport and SDGs

The ”Sport – MDGs” collection, published by « Les Editions Education physique et sport – Paris » at the request of the WCEPESL-MDGs, studies the educational contribution of sports activities to the MDGs. A ”Football & MDGs” book has already been edited. Other books are in preparation.

Sciences

The ”Sport, Sciences & Development” program addresses the scientific approaches of sport to the MDGs. Published by « Les Editions Education physique et sport – Paris », at the request of the WCEPESL-MDGs, the program promotes the scientific, instructional and educational knowledge already published in an ensemble of theme files for the teachers and students. The “Sport & Health“, “Sport & Education“, “Sport & Social Cohesion“, “Sport & Gender”, “Sport & Environment”, “Sport, Partnership & Development“ books are available.

Societies

The “Sports Societies and Development” program deals with youth, sports and MDG news in the WSA member States’ national context. The books collection, published by « Les Editions Education physique et sport – Paris » at the request of the WCEPESL-MDGs, studies the policies of and good practices in youth, physical education and sport in connection with the SDGs in a national context.

Future

These programs and the books featuring them are ready to be sent to the faculties and national institutes of sports in the World Sports Alliance’s member states. But, all these materials have been produced during the 2000’s, in compliance with the web 1.0 and 2.0. As I mentioned in the last article, we need to anticipate the future. Indeed, as in every sector of education and training, sport is subject to fast changes within the communication technologies. Evolution is changing the processes of training regulation.

Next: Article 7 – Soccer and Fintech: a contribution to the financing of youth sport.

From 1.0 to 4.0: information technologies, indispensable tools in the future of training in sport

From 1.0 to 4.0: information technologies, indispensable tools in the future of training in sport

Dr. Gilles Klein

  

Inga

The previous article suggested that sport could allow African youth to remain in their home country. It might even be a way to employment.  To make this dream into reality, it might be necessary for a large amount of water to move across the Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Development

The economists of sport have demonstrated it. In a country, sport is intertwined with economic development. Our organization did not want to wait for a significant GDP growth in the developing countries to find funding mechanisms for sport. We have bet on aligning the development of sport in these countries with sectorial projects of economic development.

Initiative

However, to make sport a hope of employment in the country, there is still a long way to go. Our initiatives ought to be numerous and successful. Let us judge it!: to contribute to the economic development of the country, to participate in financing sport, to build sport infrastructures, to reduce the number of unemployed graduates in sport, to collaborate in students’ training, to seek diversification of jobs in sport, to take part in youth education through sport. Let us be optimistic! Let us assume the short-term achievement of the projects already negotiated with several governments. That is why I would like to address deeper the issue of sport employment in the member states of our organization.

Algeria

In March 2015, I was invited to give a conference on the relationship between training supply and labour market in the sport area. I used the work that we have carried out on this issue in thirty two European countries, associating nearly a hundred universities and training institutes, and dozens of professional sport organizations. From this study, I drew several perspectives of sport employment in the context of th eArab world.

Mismatch

In my speech, I considered that the unemployment phenomenon and under employment of graduates in sport Higher education was a real societal problem: qualitative and quantitative mismatch between supply and demand, more specifically between the training offered by North African universities and the sport labour market. In the Maghreb, more largely in Africa, training in sport is too closely modelled on the European style Bachelor – Master – Doctorate. In my view, it is one of the major causes for the crisis in sport employment in Africa.

Adaptation

In Africa, the students which are registered in the sport area remain too much dependent on the general training which leads them to salaried careers, thanks to hiring by state institutions. States, which are still often registered into structural adjustment programs of the international financial institutions and, more than ever, are encouraged to reduce the reliance on public expenses. It is therefore preferable to encourage students to take up technical training that prepares for entrepreneurial activities. To offer professional opportunities to young people, sport training in Africa needs to be adapted in three ways.

Qualitative

Regarding European training we have shown the need to undertake a qualitative adaptation in training for the labor market. Fifteen standard occupations from the most widespread professional areas in sport training – coaching, physical education health and fitness, management –were subject to an in-depth analysis. Each standard occupation corresponds to a skill profile adapted to the labor market, from which initial and continuous training are conceived. Certainly, Africa and Europe are not comparable. Sport, health and fitness are often a middle-class concern. A class which is only just beginning to emerge in Africa but, the reflection on training does not provide any jobs in the short-term.

Quantitative

Therefore, it seems to me preferableto better adjust training to the flows of jobs, already created or that will be created. The result is to advise students on technical training which prepares them for entrepreunarial activities in sport. It may be a pathway leading to jobs in the short and medium terms. That is the point of view of the Conference of French speaking ministers of youth and sport (CONFEJES) which argues for brief training within the institutes of youth and sport.

Convention

The convention signed between our two organizations should be reactivated at the earliest opportunity to help CONFEJES to intervene in the states, notably African ones, to create jobs in sport. Everything is done in advance! We think about the books collections dedicated to jobs in sport, for youth, youth work, or the guide dedicated tothe micro-enterprises creation, etc. If we successfully build sport infrastructures, sporting African youth will find jobs adjusted to these profiles.

B. Gates

However, I would like to draw attention to a third type of adaptation which will now be programmed in partnership with the member states of our organization. What is it?

In the near future, 2020-2030, Bill Gates predicts that training will necessarily be digital. The revolution produced by the mass online open courses should shape learning practices. And particularly in the health and fitness area; let’s take the example of the health and fitness area with the considerable potential of micro enterprises, in Africa or elsewhere.

Fitness technologies

The web has changed the relationship between the fitness instructor and his/her patient or customer. Our organization wants to contribute to the evolution of fitness technologies – see the WSA projects above. An evolution which we cansum upin four steps.

Fitness 1.0

The 1990’s, appearance of the Web 1.0, a content proposed by a producer is available on a website visited by internet users. The user is passive and consumes information as it is done in a library. The health and fitness websites disseminate pre-constructed programs for passive users.

Fitness 2.0

Beginning of the 2000s, era of the Web 2.0. The web users are no longer just passive consumers but contribute to the creation of content and to the validation of their value. Development of blogs, forums, wikis and social networks. The health and fitness websites propose exercise databases. The web users create and are evolving their own programs.

Fitness 3.0

The 2010’s - Web 3.0. Development of a semantic web. Devices and individuals are increasingly connected. Smartphones, tablets, watches, sports and activity trackers, sportswear and sports shoes are being connected in a vast ensemble, creating and exchanging data (geo-location, individual tastes, etc.).The health and fitness websites experience problems with this. The creation of platforms and specific apps becomes necessary.

Fitness 4.0

The 2030’s. The Web 4.0. So-called intelligent web. The individual is immersed in an increasingly prevalent environment. It exacerbates the personalization already introduced by Web 3.0. Furthermore, it raises questions related to the protection of Privacy, data control, etc. Decision-makers, program designers, health and fitness professionals should not miss this opportunity of the next twenty years.

Sport-Pro

To take part in this evolution, we decided to create a platform – Global Coaching Initiative -and apps to better connect supply and demand in the area of health and fitness, more generally in the four professional areas of physical activity. It is the Sport-Pro programm conceived by our inter-governmental organization, the World Sports Alliance. The project announced on our website (Wsaigo.info) will be launched soon. An initiative in which the role of professionals, training institutes, universities, and associations will be decisive.

Next: 8 February 2017–Ready to start up!: design and dissemination of the « Sport & Development » program.