FIRST UNESCO CHAIR IN SPORT IN AFRICA

BY LONWABO MARELE

MARION KEIM'S global advocacy for sport, peace, transformation and development has earned her the appointment as UNESCO Chair in Sport, Development and Peace (SDP) and Olympic Education.

THE GOAL OF THE UNESCO CHAIR, the first UNESCO Chair in Sport in Africa, is to transform the lives of vulnerable groups such as youth, women and people with disabilities, and their families and communities, through SDP.

“This is the first UNESCO Chair in Sports in Africa, and for it to be hosted by UWC, in South Africa, is very important. There is something special about the country and its passion and history of using sport in a very unique way,” says Prof Keim. The UNESCO Chair aims at developing a continental research

PROF KEIM, who heads the Interdisciplinary Centre for Sport Sciences and Development at UWC, has more than three decades of experience in sport, peace, transformation and development in the non-profit sector and at UWC. She is a member of the Education Commission of the International Olympic Committee and is SecretaryGeneral of the Association of African Pierre de Coubertin Committees.

PROF KEIM has lectured and researched in the areas of sport and social transformation, community and youth development, multiculturalism, conflict transformation and peacebuilding in Southern Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the USA.

THE CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEES (CANOC) is collaborating with the UNESCO Chair on three projects working towards developing social integration within sport and society, which will establish strong ties with the University of West Indies regarding Olympic education.

THE THREE PROJECTS are the Sport Policy Mapping Research programme, the value of storytelling of Olympians project, and the establishment of a CANOC Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning strategy and system.

PROF KEIM SAYS: “The contribution one is able to make to develop a better, more peaceful and humane world, no matter where one is from, unites us all. Sport for me is a school of life. When you are in sport, you belong to a global family.”