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On the occasion of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) confirms its commitment to making sport a powerful lever for sustainable development and becomes a major partner of the Sport en Commun platform.
As the executing agency of Japanese ODA, JICA assists and supports developing countries by using various assistance methods and a combined regional-, country- and issue-orientied approach. Among these, JICA has been engaged in sport mainly at the grass roots level since the 1960s through the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program.
" Japan has been promoting Human Security to ensure the right of human beings to live in dignity. There is no question that sports can play an important role in achieving this objective," stated Shinichi Kitaoka, President of JICA, at the Finance in Common Summit (FICS), first summit of public development banks held last November by the French Development Agency (AFD).
"I am delighted by this first agreement between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the “Sport in Common” digital platform, which was created by the AFD Group to help make sport a lever for sustainable development in Africa – in accordance with the commitments made by the President of the French Republic in Ouagadougou. This partnership, which is part of the dynamics of the Finance in Common summit, is a very concrete example of the connection between the sport ecosystem and the development financing world determined to contribute, together, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", adds Rémy Rioux, Chair of IDFC and CEO of the AFD.
"This partnership with JICA confirms our ambition to bring together entities in Africa that share the same objective: to carry out common and concrete initiatives using sport as a lever for economic and social development. We are therefore very pleased to welcome JICA alongside AFD just a few months after the platform's inauguration," explains Nelson Camara, Executive President of Sport Impact, the structure in charge of managing and running the platform.
JICA will use Sport en Common to highlight its actions across the African continent. These actions contribute to building the capacities of individuals and local organisations in three main areas: the improvement of the access to sports, the promotion of health and physical education, the promotion of social inclusion and peace.
About Sport en Commun:
Initiated by AFD, Sport en Commun is a pan-African platform, managed from Dakar, that aims to promote the support and funding of projects promoting development through sport in Africa.
By taking existing solutions supplemented by a range of tailor-made services, the Sport en Commun platform is positioned as a one-stop shop and pursues four main goals:
- Facilitate and fast-track funding for projects of all sizes (micro, medium-sized and macro)
- Promote and accelerate support for projects throughout their life cycle
- Make contacts and interactions between stakeholders more fluid
- Ensure promotion of the subject and encourage the sharing of experiences and feedback.
The Sport en Commun platform went online on 21 September 2020 and was officially inaugurated during the Finance in Common Summit, first global summit of Public Development Banks, on 11 November 2020.
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