While sport and civil society organisations are not expected to solve global and national challenges, they can be "part of the game [and] part of the solution," argued the president of the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) Mogens Kirkeby on 23 October.
The association believes that sport NGOs have a strong role to play in addressing societal challenges such as economic stagnation, public health, ageing populations, social integration and intercultural dialogue, as well as climate change.
It therefore urges its members to take into account the impact of global challenges on their respective organisations and to consider further action to be taken.
On the same day, the ISCA's General Assembly adopted a sports political statement highlighting the way forward for the sector and announced it would create thematic networks to develop comprehensive policy action to respond to such regional, national and international challenges.
The statement commits sport-for-all organisations across the world to clarifying "their role as key civil society organisations with the potential to reach citizens on a large scale," as well as defining and communicating willingness to act on societal challenges and prioritising such action.
The organisations also commit to "open up for partnerships with other civil society organisations, with national and local governments and with the corporate sector," where value can be added by broader cooperation.
The statement also presents public and private institutions with a number of requests to help sports NGOs in their venture. These include long-term commitment to programmes tackle societal challenges through cross-cutting topics. Public and private actors are also asked to strike the balance between their support for elite and amateur sport for all "to allow for the dynamic development of both sectors".
To fully release the potential of the sport sector in contributing to tackling societal challenges, more investment in the sector and "cooperation between the public, corporate and civil society sectors is needed," concluded Kirkeby.
