The Sport for Development Coalition (SFDC) staged one of its most successful ‘Twitter takeovers’ so far this week.
Dr Morten Schmidt, Global Director of Programmes and Grants for Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, led the takeover which focused on what the new decade might hold for the Sport for Development movement.
Altogether 151 accounts actively participated in the takeover, with a cumulative following of 594,000. Click here to see the highlights. From the 15 monthly takeovers completed so far by the SFDC, this rated as the second highest number of impressions (84,965) and sixth most engagements (1253) so far.
The Twitter takeover followed this article on ‘Sport and Sustainable Development: The next 10 years’ with the Foundation’s CEO Adam Fraser, published around New Year.
This year marks 20 years since Nelson Mandela famously said that “Sport has the power to change the world” at the 2000 Laureus World Sports Awards. Laureus will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2020 Awards in Berlin on February 17.
During the live takeover, Morten (pictured below right) provided detailed answers to five key questions, some of which referenced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.
These 17 ‘Global Goals’ provide a framework around pressing issues such as ‘no poverty’ (goal number one), ‘good health and wellbeing’ (three), ‘gender equality’ (five), ‘climate action’ (13) and ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ (16).
Organisations participating in the takeover were specifically asked to consider and state which SDGs their work helps to achieve.
Leading UK-based Sport for Development organisations and SFDC supporters such as StreetGames, Sported, the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice and Youth Sport Trust all contributed, along with academics, other charity executives and delivery staff.
Laureus’ global reach, with 200 programmes supported in more than 40 countries, was reflected with contributors tweeting from Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania and the USA. It was also supported by the International Platform on Sport and Development sportanddev.org, the global partner of ConnectSport.
Each month the SFDC selects a new theme or topic, which culminates with a live Twitter takeover at the hashtag #SportForDevelopmentCoalition. During February 2020, new SFDC Chair Andy Reed OBE wants to hear about YOUR priorities for the movement. Send your questions to hello@connectsport.co.uk and join us live on Tuesday 25th February between 8-9pm GMT.
