With less than a year to go, preparations are in full swing for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. By this time, qualified athletes are now putting in endless hours of training in hopes of clinching gold medals and bringing honor and glory to their respective countries. And those who haven’t yet qualified are undoubtedly getting ready to compete in an Olympic qualifying event to secure their spot at the Games next year.
But beyond the hopeful athletes, various organizations and committees are also working hard to make the event a success, not only for the sake of the athletes but also to ensure their accomplishments have a global impact.
In light of their recent announcement, Olympics.com has just announced that the International Olympic Committee (IOC), French Development Agency (AFD), and the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 have signed a tripartite agreement that will seek to expand the legacy left by the Olympics. This new agreement is in line with IOC’s Olympism365 strategy, which aimed to bring various organizations and networks together in order to make sport and Olympism accessible 365 days a year in four key areas: health and active communities; more equitable and inclusive communities; peace and safer communities; and education and livelihoods.
The goal of this tripartite agreement is to scale up the “Impact 2024 International” program that was first set up in 2021 by the AFD in partnership with Paris 2024. The Impact 2024 International is basically a program that strengthens the social role of sport in Africa.
To cite its accomplishments, the “Impact 2024 International” program, over the last three years, has funded 45 projects in 19 African countries (South Africa, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Morocco, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, and Zambia) that had over 77,469 beneficiaries. The total fund for those projects was said to be 1.4 million euros, which had an average fund of 29,300 euros for each project.
With the tripartite agreement signed, this will help increase the funds for the local programs and help scale their environmental and social impact. With IOC’s additional investment, the agreement seeks to leverage the impact, knowledge, and innovation generated by these projects over the last three years while enabling participants to engage and learn from one another.
The photo above is from a YouTube screen grab