The Power of Sport: Building a Peaceful and Sustainable World

By Mr. Sudheesh Avikkal

United Nations Representative, AWWG — UN ECOSOC

In a world fractured by conflict, inequality, and the mounting anxiety of climate breakdown, sport may be one of humanity’s most underestimated instruments for peace and progress. The United Nations has long acknowledged this reality — designating 6 April as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace — yet the transformative capacity of sport to directly advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still receives insufficient attention from policymakers, multilateral institutions, and the global media. That must change.

Sport transcends borders, languages, and politics in a way that few human activities can. When South Africa lifted the Rugby World Cup in 1995, it was not merely a sporting triumph — it was an act of national healing. Nelson Mandela’s deliberate use of the Springboks as a symbol of unity across a historically divided nation demonstrated that sport carries a moral force that diplomacy alone cannot replicate. Decades later, the data affirms what that moment signalled intuitively.

According to the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), sport-based programmes have successfully reached over 60 million youth across conflict-affected and developing regions. The economic case is equally compelling: every US$1 invested in sport-based youth development in fragile states yields an estimated US$3.8 in measurable social and economic value, according to findings cited by the Commonwealth Secretariat. These are not abstract figures — they represent young lives redirected from cycles of poverty, violence, and exclusion.

Sport and the SDGs: A Direct Line

SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-Being: Physical inactivity costs the global economy an estimated US$54 billion in direct healthcare expenditure annually, with an additional US$14 billion in lost productivity (The Lancet, 2016). Sport, when made accessible at a community level, is among the most cost-effective public health interventions available to governments.

SDG 4 — Quality Education: UNESCO research finds that children engaged in regular physical activity show up to 40% improvement in cognitive performance and concentration. Sport-in-school frameworks are increasingly being adopted across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America as low-cost tools to improve attendance, reduce dropout rates, and foster discipline and teamwork — skills that translate directly into productive citizenship.

SDG 5 — Gender Equality: Sport is a frontline arena for shifting social norms around gender. The proportion of women competing at the Olympics has grown from under 30% in 1992 to nearly 49% at Paris 2024 — a structural shift driven by deliberate policy.

Beyond elite sport, grassroots programmes targeting adolescent girls in marginalised communities have been shown to reduce child marriage rates, improve school retention, and build the confidence needed to claim equal space in public life.

SDG 10 and SDG 16 — Reduced Inequalities and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: When sport is governed transparently and its infrastructure made available to all — regardless of ethnicity, income, or geography — it becomes a living expression of inclusion and institutional trust. Community sport leagues in post-conflict zones have demonstrably reduced inter-communal violence. In Rwanda, government-supported grassroots football programmes have been formally documented as contributing to reconciliation efforts in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.

From Margin to Mainstream

As an UN representative of AWWG to the UN ECOSOC, my interest within the UN ECOSOC framework is grounded in the conviction that sport must be elevated from a peripheral concern to a strategic pillar of global development policy. The 2030 Agenda demands creative, scalable, and people-centred solutions. Sport offers all three. It requires no translation. It does not discriminate by language or religion. And with the right investment and governance, it creates ripple effects that reach into health systems, schools, communities, and peace processes alike.

The evidence is there. The frameworks are available. What remains is the political will to act. Governments, multilateral bodies, and civil society must now formalise sport as an instrument of the SDGs — funding it, measuring it, and holding it to the same accountability standards we demand of any development intervention. The whistle has blown. It is time the world starts playing its part.

Mr. Sudheesh Avikkal is the United Nations Representative of the Africana Women’s Working Group to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).