FIAS Attends the Seminar organised by the Canton Vaud and UN Agencies

On the 5^th of October 2017, the Seminar "Achieving SDGs through Sport: partnerships and institutional responses for greater coherence and effectiveness" was organised in Lausanne, Switzerland. More than 130 representatives from international organisations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), international sports federations (IFs) and civil society discussed strategies and possible forms of collaboration to implement the Sustainable Development Goals through sport.

The importance of sport in society was officially reaffirmed when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015. Sport is recognised as an "important partner" and as such it is necessary to fully integrate sustainability into all IOC and Olympic Movement activities.

The Lausanne seminar brought together numerous international sports organisations of all sizes, sports and humanitarian NGOs, as well as international organisations and agencies of the UN system.  With the help of the academic sector (University of Geneva and AISTS), the seminar covered the following topics:  

- Improve the coherence and effectiveness of collaborative action.

- Strengthen knowledge of the different partnerships within the United Nations system, the IOC, IFs, and other relevant actors and their respective activities in this regard.

- Provide resources, practical tools and information to better achieve common goals.

- Encourage the creation of new partnerships.

With regard to the UN and its specialised agencies, work is being carried out on the ground on a daily basis to develop policies and programmes that include sport in thematic areas such as poverty, health, well-being, education, gender equality, non-discrimination, economic growth, decent work, housing and cities, and biodiversity in a context of harmonious and sustainable development. Practical tools were made available and exchanged, new knowledge clusters were identified, and a training initiative was launched with local partners, international organisations and UN agencies.

FIAS, have been one of the first international sport federation which created its sustainability event guidelines using and implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The first FIAS sustainability report based on two events, namely the Youth and Junior World SAMBO Championships 2015 in Riga, Latvia and the World SAMBO Championships 2015 in Casablanca, Morocco. The G4, Global Reporting Initiative and the AISTS Sustainability Sports & Events Toolkit were used to frame this report. The report is also linked with the proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals.