Zimpapers Logo

Sports Reporter 

AUSC Region 5 have dedicated the month of April as the month of Sport for Development and Peace. 

This milestone decision was made to heighten attention towards the commemoration of the power of sport to promote peaceful and inclusive societies in support of the United Nations, which declared April 6, as the Inter-national Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP). 

This year’s United Nations IDSDP theme was “Promoting Sport for Peaceful and Inclusive Societies”. 

As part of the activities to commemorate IDSDP, Region 5 had several activities, which included radio and television interviews. 

In addition, the AUSC Region 5 hosted a Sport for Development Stakeholders Workshop on April 20, 2024, at the University of Botswana. 

The theme for this year’s stakeholders’ workshop was, “Towards a more peaceful and Inclusive Region: What Role Can Sport Play?” 

It was aimed at unpacking how key stakeholders could effectively use sport to drive social change, and community development and to foster peace and understanding within societies. According to the UN, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace presents an opportunity to recognise the role that sport and physical activity play in communities and people’s lives across the world. 

AUSC Region 5 recognises the power of sport to positively transform societies. Region 5 further recognises and promotes sport as a fundamental right and a powerful tool to strengthen social ties, sustainable development, and peace, as well as solidarity and respect for all. 

The 2024 stakeholders’ workshop was therefore hosted to create dialogue around ways of effectively using sport as a tool for social development and cohesion. 

The workshop was officially opened by the deputy permanent secretary in the Botswana Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, standing on for the permanent secretary Tshepo Maphuting. 

Maphuting commended the efforts by Region 5 towards seeking collective interventions to foster sustainable peace and development through sport in the region. 

He placed emphasis on the need for the Region to galvanise its efforts toward creating a better society for future generations. 

Speaking at the same workshop, Region 5 CEO, Stanley Mutoya challenged stakeholders and member countries to do more in the use of sport as a tool as a solution to African challenges. Mutoya noted that peace in the Region 5 context was not the absence of guns and gunfire, but heightened poverty, unemployment, drug and substance abuse, youth delinquency, climate change, gender inequality, and non-accidental aggression all of which had placed serious threat to the peace, harmony and economic development of the region. 

Over 30 sports administrators, students, and athletes drawn from government ministries, Region 5 Member Countries, The Association of International Sport For All (TAFISA), Botswana National Sports Commission, BNOC, Women and Sport Botswana, regional confederations, national federations and the University of Botswana took part in the workshop. 

 Presenters included Allan Williams, Executive Director at the Sport for Social Change Network, and Mutoya.