International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2024: What is it, how is it observed, and Olympism365’s role

What is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2024 theme?

In 2024, the global theme of IDSDP is “Sport for the Promotion of Peaceful and Inclusive Societies”.

As the world faces a multitude of challenges, the transformative power of sport for social change can have a real and lasting impact on people’s lives.

How does the IOC contribute towards IDSDP with Olympism365?

Through Olympism365, the IOC supports a wide range of projects and initiatives like these that use sport-based approaches to positively impact people’s lives in areas such as education, employment, sustainability, equality, inclusion, health, crime prevention, peace, and safety.

Olympism365 also focuses on scaling new and innovative approaches to sport for development, including maximising the positive social impact of esports and urban sports.

The IOC works in close collaboration with over 35 organisations including United Nations agencies, international development organisations and the sport movement in over 70 countries.

In doing so, it helps:

• co-invest in community sport and social change projects that provide more opportunities for people to access the benefits of sport
• train and build the capacity of people and organisations to use sport for social good
• generate insight, research and knowledge to inform and shape policy, and
• advocate for the role of sport and Olympism in society.

Results can already be seen from other Olympism365 projects, such as its Sport, Education and Livelihoods initiative in Latin America, which uses community sports-based programmes to develop young people’s vocational, entrepreneurial, digital and socio-emotional skills. That programme has already benefitted 13,000 young people in eight countries in the region.