The Sport for Development Coalition has unveiled its new Executive Director.

Ollie Dudfield will join the Coalition at the start of October following five years as Head of Sport for Development and Peace at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The role has been created after new funding for the Coalition from Comic Relief, Sport England and Laureus Sport for Good was announced in May.

The Coalition is a movement of charities, national governing bodies and networks who believe in the power of sport and physical activity to act as effective tools for intervention when generating a wide range of positive social outcomes. These range from tackling youth violence to improving mental wellbeing and increasing community cohesion.

QUANTIFY

Ollie has spearheaded the Commonwealth’s initiatives on sport and the Sustainable Development Goals. This has included co-ordinating global efforts to measure and quantify the contribution of sport to the Goals.

He said: “The impact of Covid-19 has intensified many of the most urgent social challenges across the UK. In response, scaling the use and impact of sport for development has never been more urgent.

“I believe a collective, whole-sector approach is essential to achieve this goal, making the mission of the Sport for Development Coalition critical.

“The foundation laid by the Coalition’s membership and Board, coupled with the enhanced support of Sport England, Comic Relief and Laureus Sport for Good provides the building blocks to position a scaled, sustainable Coalition as a cornerstone of an impactful and world-leading sport for development movement.

“This is an exciting and highly important proposition that I am looking forward to contributing to.”

POLICY

Ollie’s experience in advising multiple United Nations and intergovernmental agencies, national governments, sporting bodies and civil society organisations on policy design and strategy made him the outstanding candidate for the role, according to Andy Reed, Chair of the Coalition.

Andy said: “Ollie’s background and knowledge of the global sport for development movement, plus his work at policy level, made him the outstanding candidate for the role.

“He will now lead a small team tasked with creating momentum within the sector over the coming years, through a collaborative model that focuses on our three core aims of advocacy, impact and investment.”

For more information, visit www.sportfordevelopmentcoalition.org or follow @SFDCoalition on Twitter.

Pic credit: Fight for Peace.