The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) continues to represent the Australian Government at the United Nations (UN) with staff members Sophie Beauvais (Director of International Sport for Development) and Carolyn Watts (Director of Capability Building, Integrity) attending the Third Plenary Session of the Sport for Development International Working Group (SPD IWG) in Switzerland recently.

Elections for regional representatives saw the ASC reinstated as the Representative for Oceania.  In this capacity, the ASC has been providing the working group with ongoing updates and case studies on the work conducted within the Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) in countries such as Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Representatives from 22 countries and a number of UN officers attended the session to discuss Sport and Peace initiatives which utilise sport to promote social inclusion, child protection, diversity and a culture of peace.  Our ASC representatives provided a presentation which highlighted a number of national and international initiatives developed by the Commission — including the Healthy Islands Through Sport Forum held in March in Brisbane (attended by 14 different Pacific Island countries); ASOP India; ASOP Solomon Islands; ASOP Tonga;, disability inclusion in the Pacific;, Play by the Rules activities in Australia and the Sport Demonstration Project in the Northern Territory.

Wilifried Lemke, Special Adviser to the UN General-Secretary on Sport for Development and Peace, was quick to commend the work of the commission.

'I would like to use this opportunity to thank you for the continuous and valuable involvement of the Australian Sports Commission to the SDP IWG to set the standard in the field of Sport for Development and Peace and acknowledge the ever closer co-operation between the ASC and the SDP IWG Secretariat,' Lemke said after the meeting.

The ASC’s attendance and presentation were also well received by fellow attendees.  One participant who was keen to praise Australia's work at the session was Maria Bobenrieth, Executive Director of the Netherlands-based Women Win, a world leading agency which builds the capacity of organisations to include women and girls in sport.

'That Australian sense of humour and lightness really helped brighten up Geneva,' she commented after the two-day event.

Bobenrieth has long been an advocate of the ASC's work in the sport for development field.