In 2010, the World Sports Alliance will celebrate the third anniversary of its creation and at this time, we would like to extend our best wishes for good health and prosperity to all our partners.
In the first two years of its existence, the Alliance federated 26 Member States from three continents: Africa, Central and Latin America and Europe. We sincerely wish that by the end of the first decade of the third millennium, many more States will join the Alliance, and support Article 1 of the 1978 UNESCO Charter which recognizes the right of each child and young person to access physical activity and the achievement of the MDGs.
At the beginning of the XXIst century, there is however a paradox: the more that the needs of youth increase – needs emanating from sedentary lifestyles and obesity in the northern countries and social integration problems in the southern countries –the harder it is for public politics to propose satisfactory solutions directed to the disengagement problems of the State in the northern countries and to the budget and infrastructure problems in the southern countries.
According to international experts, States by themselves cannot fulfill the needs of the youth for physical activity in a satisfactory manner.
The Public-Private Partnerships proposed by the World Sports Alliance constitute a heuristic way to hold the old and ambitious challenge of the UNESCO Charter.
After the accession of 26 Member States between 2007 and 2009, WSA decided to direct its 2010 efforts towards the finalization of Public-Private Partnerships. Negotiations were started with ten Governments in order to study and sign Master Framework Country Conventions, Host Site Agreements, and Partnership Protocols for the commencement of the activities.
The first partnership was selected from the sector of environmental sustainability and is related to waste management in large African metropolises. The Waste-to-fertilizer PPP enables the creation of green agriculture in the participating Member State. A portion of the incomes of these partnerships will make it possible to build or rebuild the Member States National Institute of Sports or the Sports Science and Physical Education facility, a National Pilot Center with a capacity of 300 young people (100 of them as residents), Regional Pilot Centers and Local Community Centers in the districts of the large cities or villages. Locally, each Community Center will provide youths with access to interior or exterior physical activities, computers, health, education, and cultural activities.
