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Sport, Development, and International Community

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International Perspectives on Sport for Sustainable Development
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Abstract

Sport for development has become a significant part of international development discourse. Since the late twentieth century, national governments, international agencies, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs, and different stackholders have increasingly promoted sport as a tool to deliver development goals. The global era of sport has created the opportunity for sport to be a social force for internationalism, reconciliation, and international development. Sport is currently linked to a wide variety of development initiatives as it is often posited as a tool to assist in economic, environmental, and social development. Acknowledgment that sport can be an important enabler of development objectives; builds on a range of previous international declarations and policy statements by various organizations, especially the UN and its relevant institutions. This chapter begins with a brief discussion of what is “sport development” and related concepts. After then we provide a historical overview considering sustainable development and international communities’ efforts in the contribution of sport to sustainable development goals (SDGs). The last section, focuses on evolution of sport for development in three most prominent organizations: the UN, the Commonwealth, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over time.

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Hozhabri, K. (2022). Sport, Development, and International Community. In: Sobry, C., Hozhabri, K. (eds) International Perspectives on Sport for Sustainable Development . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06936-9_1

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