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The first hybrid in-person and virtual environmental event since the pandemic began, the Congress will drive action on nature-based recovery, climate change and biodiversity for decades to come.

• Click here to register for in-person
• Click here to register for virtual
• Click here to access the Congress program

Following the resounding success and global acclaim of last year’s inaugural Sport Integrity Week, SIGA announces the #SIW2021 edition, the world’s premier thought leadership digital event fully focused on Sport Integrity. The #SIW2021 will take place over five action-packed days (13 – 17 September 2021), across a World Stage and six Continental Stages (America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania).

Promoting global solutions to global problems through regional approaches, SIGA’s flagship event will bring together the whole sporting industry, including senior executives, thought leaders, forwardthinkers, key policy-makers, law enforcement authorities, global sponsors, media, and all those who want to see sport and the wider industry be governed and operated under the highest integrity standards.

This is much more than a consumption orientated talking shop! Comprising a series of world-class and interactive debates, high-profile one-to-one sessions with some of the most influential global industry leaders and insightful keynote speeches, the Sport Integrity Week 2021 is underpinned by dynamic engagement, networking and mechanisms that will drive collaboration, future projects and initiatives. All intended to deliver, in a collaborative, inclusive and unified way, the much-need reforms that will overcome the most pressing challenges facing the global sporting industry.

The first 10 confirmed speakers require no introduction.They are:

• Javier Tebas, President, La Liga
• Alison Giordano, Vice President, Global Sponsorships and Content Marketing, Mastercard
• Lorenzo Salazar, Vice-Chair, Working Group on Bribery in International Business, OECD
• Andrea Traverso, Director, Financial Sustainability & Research, UEFA
•David Butler, General Manager, European Rugby League
• Paul Elliott, Chair, Inclusion Advisory Board, The FA
• Mark Lichtenhein, Chairman, Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC)
• Ralf Reichert, Co-founder & Co-CEO, ESL Gaming
• Stacey Copeland, Former English professional boxer and football player | female superwelterweight Commonwealth Boxing Champion | SIGA Champion
• Pedro Duarte, Director, Corporate, External & Legal Affairs, Microsoft Corporation

Commenting the launch of the Sport Integrity Week 2021, SIGA’s Global CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, stated: “As we all look to overcome the consequences of the devastating global pandemic, SIGA is more committed than ever to mobilizing and unifying all sectors of the sporting industry, to not only deliver Recovery with Integrity, but to use this opportunity to move from despair to optimism and evolve in positive and meaningful ways. Sport is coming back to the pitches, courts, and tracks.

This is a moment to celebrate, but equally to assume responsibilities, tackle the problems heads on, without excuses, and set in motion long overdue integrity reforms. Sport is being played again in open fields, under the lights, in fronts on millions, all over the world. It must be governed the same way: with integrity, transparency, and accountability.

This is what the fans deserve, the global business community expects, and sport is all about! Bringing together all sides of the global sporting industry, from all continents and all sports, the Sport Integrity Week is a dynamic, multi-cultural space of dialogue, knowledge sharing and thought leadership. It is the perfect platform to make things happen.

Last year’s inaugural Sport Integrity Week was undoubtedly a huge success, with more than 1200 delegates and more than 250 speakers. This year, we will be even more inclusive, more engaging and more action-orientated. We cannot wait to get started! As you can see from the first 10 names we are disclosing this morning – experts from the top of their fields, representing the most impactful, forward-thinking organisations, are fully engaged, and ready to go. This is only a small taste of what is to come! So, come along and be part of this growing independent global movement for change. Join us. Support our Sport Integrity Goals and participate in the #StandWithSIGA campaign.

The Sport Integrity Week will address a specific and complementary topic every day:
Day 1 – 13 Sept: Good Governance, Anti-Corruption & International Cooperation in Sport
Day 2 – 14 Sept: Financial Integrity, Transparency & Sustainability in Sport
Day 3 – 15 Sept: Sports Betting Integrity
Day 4 – 16 Sept: Global Business, Media and Technology in Sport
Day 5 – 17 Sept: Youth Development and Protection in Sport

Following the doping scandals that rocked the sports world prior to the Rio Olympic Games, World Athletics (then IAAF) embarked upon a pathbreaking governance reforms process. The creation of an independent Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), to handle all integrity issues in the sport of athletics, sat at the very heart of those reforms. In the last four years, since its creation in April 2017, the AIU has become a benchmark among integrity bodies in international sports.

The AIU has the power to investigate and prosecute all forms of integrity breaches including doping, corruption, competition manipulation, harassment and abuse, etc. that may exist in the sport of athletics.  In this upcoming TALK, Aditya Kumar, Head of Education and Communications at AIU, will share how the organisation is living up to its role of drive cheats out of athletics and support athletes around the world to reach their goals through honest hard work.

Register here: https://sportworker.com/event/sportworks-talks-athletics-integrity-units-pioneering-and-holistic-approach-to-sports-integrity/

Join the 47th session of the Human Rights Council on the potential of leveraging sport and the Olympic ideal for promoting human rights for young people.

When: 7 July, 10am - 12pm CEST

Where: Palais des Nations, Geneva, and Zoom (will be webcasted and archived on http://webtv.un.org)

Since their inception in 776 BCE, the concept of the Olympic Games has been to promote peace, given that thanks to the Olympic Truce conflicts were suspended for the duration of the Games in Olympia. In the same vein, sport and the Olympic ideal can be an invaluable tool for the promotion of human rights, development, conciliation and dialogue, and in particular for young people who are involved in practicing sports. Sport education and the values that sports carry with them are of paramount importance to this aim and this suggests that sport and the Olympic ideal can have an increased leveraging potential for promoting human rights for young people. 

The panel discussion will offer an opportunity to identify good practices, challenges and opportunities in that respect, with a focus on:

• The role of sport in promoting human rights for young people, its impact and how it can be optimized
• How sport can further the rights of young people in society, becoming an instrument of empowerment
• How major sporting events can be a welcoming environment in order to promote awareness and a better understanding of human rights both by and for young people without any form of discrimination
• Suggestions, good practices and practical examples of how to leverage sport and the Olympic ideal for the promotion of human rights for young people

Chair: H.E. Ms. Monique T.G. Van Daalen, Vice-President of the Human Rights Council

Opening statements:

• Ms. Nada Al-Nashif, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Mr. Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (video message)
• Mr. Toshiro Muto, Director General of Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee (video message)

Panellists:

• Ms. Elizaveta Kunstmann, European Champion (2013, 2017 and 2019) and World Champion (2018) in sitting volleyball (video message)
• Ms. Kathrine Switzer, Athlete and social advocate (video message)
• Ms. Jenny Oklikah, Chief Executive of the NGO “Fight for Peace” (video message)
• Ms. Sofia Bekatorou, Olympic gold and bronze medallist in sailing (2004 & 2008 Summer Olympic Games) (video message)

With Seyi Smith.

Gamification has been used to improve processes across a wide range of businesses and as a method to deal with the intricacies of human psychology.

Could it be used to develop sports events and the industry as a whole? According to Oluseyi Smith, Olympian and Engineer, the answer is yes.

Besides being one of the few athletes to have competed both in the Summer and Winter Games, Seyi is a passionate advocate for climate awareness and developed sustainability processes for small scale athletics events as part his IOC Young Leader Project.

In this upcoming SportWorks TALK, he will guide you through what is gamification with respect to his project, how it can benefit sports and sustainability in general, and the results he achieved.

In partnership with: The Sustainability Report

Register here: https://bit.ly/3xRn5cC

In the wake of this pandemic and the adverse impact it has had on individuals as well as the economy, the role of sports in building a better and more inclusive society becomes even more crucial. A subject that requires further exploration is; how best to use the values that sport instils in us – resilience, discipline, leadership, and hard work – to bring about radical changes in our ecosystem. These values promote huge educational and life-skills, required for employability, livelihood and quality of life. This has led us, The Abhinav Bindra Foundation (not for profit initiative led by India’s only individual Olympic Gold Medallist), to start a series of dialogues with renowned experts with the aim of engaging with the sporting world as well as the general audience.

In our upcoming event, please join in to be part of Fireside Chat with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi social business entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader. Through his initiatives, the ‘Yunus Social Business’ and ‘Yunus Sports Hub’, Professor Yunus has developed a global social business network that aims at creating solutions in and through the medium of sports. We implore you to not miss this opportunity to learn and interact with this luminary.

Click here to register to the session

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is committed to creating a landmark: to be the first major global sports event with a positive contribution to the climate.

The strategy is based on three pillars: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, support for projects with a positive contribution to climate, and mobilisation of stakeholders to maximise long-term positive impact.

In this upcoming SportWorks TALK – Sustainability Leadership Series, Georgina Grenon, Paris 2024’s Director of Environmental Excellence, will give us an inside look on these pillars and their revolutionary ambitions, and how they are starting to deliver on that promise, three years ahead of their Games.

Click here to register to the webinar

UEFA’s Cleaner Air, Better Game campaign is raising awareness about the threat of air pollution to the future of football. During the European Under-21 Championship taking place in Hungary and Slovenia, UEFA has been encouraging fans around the world to take a step to protect the planet and the game we love. It has also led a series of legacy activities on the ground in the host nations and guaranteed this tournament is carbon neutral.
For this online workshop, UEFA is bringing together leaders and experts to discuss best practices in raising awareness and creating change through the power of sport.

Welcome and opening
Aleksander Čeferin, UEFA President
Frans Timmermans, European Commission Executive Vice President

Panel discussion
Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, Nobel Prize winning climatologist
Mathieu Flamini, Professional footballer and environmentalist
Michele Uva, UEFA Director Football & Social Responsibility
Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, Sport for Climate Action lead, UNFCC

Watch live on Youtube : https://youtube.com/uefatv

In a year when our fans and communities needed us most, sports stepped up to the plate. From opening our venues as food banks, voting centers, and vaccination sites to leveraging our platforms to grow support for social justice, sports have shown how to serve as both cultural centers and critical corporate citizens.

The 2021 GSA Summit will celebrate these stories and showcase how sports venues, teams, leagues and corporate partners around the world can continue to take ambitious action on both environmental and social issues to create a more sustainable, just, and resilient future for all.

Learn how the scope of the “green sports” movement continues to expand, including improved operational performance measurement, tracking and reporting in addition to increased diversity in leadership and greater access to sports for all

Together, we Play for the Next Generation!

If you have any questions and/or are interested in participating in this year’s Virtual Summit, please reach out to us at info@greensportsalliance.org.

United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), and UNESCO’s Kazan Action Plan are great examples of international policies that guide the development of sports for development world-wide.

But how are they being put into practice? Are there good examples and case studies? What guidelines they suggest and that could inspire sport projects around the globe?

In this upcoming SportWorks TALK, Paul Hunt, Senior Project Manager at the International Platform on Sport and Development (sportanddev), will share learnings from initiatives in different countries that are building the bridge between policy and practice, to put sports at the service of all.

Click here to register