ISF will be in attendance at this year’s Africa-France Summit being held on 8 October in Montpellier, France, represented by ISF President Laurent Petrynka. This event will bring together for the first-time, hundreds of young entrepreneurs, artists, researchers, athletes, students and committed personalities from Africa and France. On the sports side, high-level athletes and amateur athletes from the African continent will meet for a day of sports activities, meetings, and exchanges.
This event will also be the occasion for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ISF and Sport en Commun, between ISF President Laurent Petrynka and Sport en Commun Executive President of Sport Impact Nelson Camara. The formalising of this collaboration is further sign of the continued development of the ISF strategy on the continent of Africa, building on the steps that have been implemented since the ISF Gymnasiade in Morocco back in 2018, and fully aligned with the recent increase in levels of participation in ISF from African countries, with a total of 36 African countries currently ISF members. During the recent ISF U15 World School Sport Games Belgrade in September 2021, ISF reinforced its partnership with Ugandan stakeholders, and had the opportunity to speak with Ugandan Minister of State for Sports of Uganda Mr. Denis Hamson Obua.
Sport en Commun is a pan-African digital platform designed to facilitate transformation through sport by connecting project managers with providers that can fund their activities and support them in their implementation. Based in Dakar, Senegal, Sport en Commun aims to promote the support and funding of projects promoting development through sport in Africa. By taking existing solutions supplemented by a range of tailor-made services, the Sport en Commun platform is positioned as a one-stop shop and pursues four main goals:
- Facilitate and fast-track funding for projects of all sizes (micro, medium-sized and macro)
- Promote and accelerate support for projects throughout their life cycle
- Make contacts and interactions between stakeholders more fluid
- Ensure promotion of the subject and encourage the sharing of experiences and feedback
During the Africa-France Summit, the Sport en Commun platform will be honoured in 3 stages:
- Presentation of its results after only 12 months of existence: 1,500 members, more than €1,000,000 in funding, more than 100 local experts listed.
- Presence of the Sport Impact Leaders, supported by Sport en Commun. Among them Ian Mahinmi, Estelle Mossely, Géraldine Robert, Youssouf Mulumbu, Diana Gandéga, Arnaud Assoumani, Rock Feliho, Fatou Diouck and Serge Betsen. They will present their own initiatives in favor of sport and development and share their experiences with the young people in attendance.
- Signature of a cooperation agreement between Sport en Commun and the International School Sport Federation (ISF) for the promotion and development of school sport on the African continent. ISF and Sport en Commun will work together to support local member federations, to deploy physical education and sports teacher training programmes, and to organise regional and international competitions on the continent.
"We are very pleased to formalise our collaboration with Sport en Commun at this important international summit for Sport and Africa. This new partnership is part of the acceleration of our cooperation with African governments and international organisations active on the continent since our Gymnasiade event in Morocco in 2018. Today we have 36 member countries in Africa out of our 132 members across five continents and thousands of young African men and women who have participated in our international events. We are convinced that ISF and Sport en Commun will continue to develop together actions for sport through school and physical education for African youth but also to allow young people from all over the world to discover this wonderful continent through sport."
Laurent Petrynka, ISF President
"The promising start of the Sport en Commun platform confirms our ambition to make sport a key tool for economic and social development in Africa. The first actions deployed under the impetus of the French Development Agency have indeed enabled us to massively mobilise the local and international ecosystem, despite a restrictive economic and health context.
The collaboration announced with the ISF is a perfect illustration of the direction of the Sport en Commun platform, which is based on strengthening cooperation between governments, international sports organisations, civil society, financing structures and companies. This summit, in its unprecedented format, is an excellent opportunity to exchange with the young beneficiaries of our various programmes and with model athletes who are sources of inspiration.”
Nelson Camara, Sport en Commun Executive President of Sport Impact
Read the Press Release Here
