www.olympic.org - Site Officiel du Mouvement Olympique
PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES
copyright K. Mascagni
Today, the Olympic Movement and the IOC are working in the field of development through sport, helping to promote education, culture, health care, human rights, sustainable development and gender equality in disadvantaged communities or among populations at risk. It also assists several humanitarian organisations by providing sports equipment to war victims, refugees and victims of natural disasters.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Getty/Todd Warshaw
The IOC cooperates with numerous United Nations agencies, as well as with other international governmental and non-governmental institutions to develop and implement a range of projects using sport as a tool for development. National Olympic Committees are also important partners which support these activities locally through their sports expertise and network. Several International Federations have similarly developed initiatives in this field too.
The international cooperation and development activities of the IOC have developed steadily over the years. Back in 1922, the IOC and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) established an institutional cooperation, which was later reinforced through specific partnerships with other UN agencies and programmes.
"Why introduce music, dancing and football when the urgent needs lay elsewhere? And yet this scepticism quickly dissipated when the results were seen. All kinds of people found in sport a means of relaxing and communicating. Little by little, the fabric of social relations was repaired and a degree of 'normality` was restored. The barriers of fear and exclusion fell." Jean Fabre, Deputy Director of the European Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD)