Turning Sports Into an Instrument for Human Development And Integration Within the Ecowas Region

13 May 2010
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Dakar - Nieria — "Sports or sports activities should not in any way be sources of troubles leading to the violence seen in the stadia but instead important instruments for social life, sources of personal and collective commitment and development", said the Senegalese Minister of Youth, Sports and Leisure this morning in Dakar on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Meeting of Experts preparatory to the Conference of ECOWAS Ministers of Youth and Sports scheduled to be held next Monday in the Senegalese Capital city.

First of all, Mr. Mamadou Lamine KEITA insisted on the role of sports which is specifically meant to stimulate and kindle the pride of the peoples and, secondly on the virtues that should be embodied by sportsmen anytime and anywhere. The Senegalese Minister of Youth, Sports and Leisure concluded his opening speech by advocating for concrete actions to be undertaken against activities such as doping and corruption that blight the sport community.

Mr. KEITA seized the opportunity to thank the ECOWAS Commission for choosing Senegal to host the meeting. He also urged the participants to consider the documents that will be submitted to them with particular attention. Speaking along the same line, the Commissioner in charge of Human Development and Gender of the ECOWAS Commission also urged the participants to appropriately consider the documents so that the final document to be submitted to the Ministers will mirror the vision and aspirations of the region on issues relating to youth and sports. Dr. Adrienne Diop said: "I am convinced that at the end of our deliberations, we will leave Senegal satisfied with a policy instrument that promotes the development of sports in the region, an expression of the ECOWAS Vision 2020 aimed at transforming ECOWAS from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of the Peoples".

According to her, the Meeting of Experts is an important step towards the development of sports within our region, considering that it will provide the required enabling institutional environment to put in place adequate tools to ensure harmonious and coordinated management and development of sports in all Member States. The Commissioner for Human Development and Gender of the ECOWAS Commission recalled that "by adopting this policy, we will have the global political framework that will enable us to turn sports into a key sector of the socio-economic life of the population and an instrument for human development and regional integration". During the next three days, participants at the Meeting will mainly discuss topics such as Community Sports as an instrument for sustainable regional integration, the draft ECOWAS Sports Policy and the draft ECOWAS Strategic Plan of Action.

They will also have to deepen their reflections on other issues like the study on ECOWAS Sports/Youth Federations and Associations Directories, sports for development and peace, sports for integration as well as development and promotion of Traditional African Sports. The first edition of the West African Public Service Games and the first edition of the ECOWAS Games will also be presented to the participants.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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