AFD and Paris 2024: sustainable development through sports

Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Tony Estanguet, President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, signed a cooperation agreement for projects combining sports and sustainable development in France and around the world.

When you put Paris 2024 and AFD together, it’s more than just fun and games, there’s development too. Together, they have a common ambition: to use the excitement surrounding the Olympic Games for everyone’s benefit. With a national and international focus, this groundbreaking partnership, the first of its kind in the history of the Olympic Games, reflects the commitment of Paris 2024 to align the event with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The signing of this agreement represents the coming together of two organizations with the same conviction: that sports can form a powerful lever for change in society. Through this commitment, Paris 2024 is expanding its strategic legacy approach and actions in education, health, gender equality and disability to reach beyond national borders.

As of today, several of the actions announced as part of this agreement are taking shape:

• Beginning in 2020, a group of 24 athletes leading social and environmental projects in France (8 athletes) and in French cooperation priority countries (16 athletes) will benefit from an entrepreneurship support program. Female athletes make up at least half of this first group. Between 2020 and 2023, Agence Française de Développement will devote €700,000 to funding this initiative.
• Over the 2021-2023 period, AFD and Paris 2024 will launch a €3-million call for projects in which sports are used to promote development. These projects can be led by local stakeholders (NGOs, national Olympic and Paralympic committees, federations, etc.) in France’s development cooperation priority countries. Priority will be given to projects that aim to promote gender equality through sport and those that promote better integration of people with disabilities through sports.
• Local and regional authorities who have received the “Terre de Jeux 2024” label and are leading decentralized cooperation projects related to sport can request funding from AFD as part of the FICOL financing utility. Each project that meets the eligibility requirements could potentially receive funding between €200,000 and €1.5 million, with funding from AFD representing a maximum of 70% of the total cost for the project.

This agreement comes as a follow-up to initial collaboration by AFD and Paris 2024 with the Organizing Committee for the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Africa.

In addition to these actions, Paris 2024 and AFD will promote contributions to sustainable development through sports to ensure it becomes a greater priority for international donors and organizations. Agence Française de Développement will specifically mobilize development agencies and banks to integrate more “sports” components related to the Olympic and Paralympic movement in their actions.

Original source: AFD
Published on 06 February 2020