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Ministerial Webinar on the Safeguarding and Promotion of Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) in Africa

Ministerial Webinar on the Safeguarding and Promotion of Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) in Africa

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SPORTS AND GAMES CONFEDERATION (ATSGC)
IN COLLABORATION WITH
UNESCO MULTISECTORAL REGIONAL OFFICES FOR WESTERN AFRICA in ABUJA AND EASTERN AFRICA IN NAIROBI

Ministerial Webinar on the Safeguarding and Promotion of Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) in Africa
Tuesday 15th – Thursday 17th June 2021 12:00 CAT

Venue: Virtual
Participating Countries All Africa Member States
Implementing Agency: UNESCO, ATSGC
Proposed dates: Tuesday 15 – Thursday 17 June 2021
Time: 12:00 CAT (10:00 GMT)
Languages: English & French (simultaneous translation)

Please find below the registration link
https://unesco-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItdumhrDwjEtPEjpdRnZwcXBL2u-wnpSb6

Contact Person (S):
FOR ATSGC:
Mr. Yahya Al-Matarr JOBE – President ATSGC
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or M: + 33 669938149
Chief Michael Shamsu Mustapha - Secretary General
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or M: +232 78477555
FOR UNESCO:
Mr. Hugue Ngandeu, Programme Specialist for Social and Human Sciences
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mr. Wilima Kevin Wolaka – Programme Assistant (UNV)
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or M: +2348031193413
Mr. Dally Marcellin, Secretary of the International Convention against Doping in Sport, Programme Specialist for the Safeguarding and Promotion of Traditional Sports and Games
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mr. Lorcher-Beaudran Jonathan, Assistant to project officer
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1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
This ministerial webinar is organized by the African Traditional Sports and Games Confederation (ATSGC) in collaboration with UNESCO, through its Regional Offices for Western and Eastern Africa, as well as the Sports Section at UNESCO Headquarters, with a focus on the Safeguarding and promotion of traditional sports and games. The webinar also aims to gather Sports Ministers and Professional Heads of Sports Ministries from across the continent to discuss and follow-up on commitments that have been made towards the safeguarding and promotion of traditional and endogenous games, as well as to develop a roadmap for the official inclusion of African traditional and endogenous games in the All African Games program.
Africa boasts an ethnically diverse population with a rich cultural heritage. Modern sport is known and practiced widely on the continent. However, Africa also has a broad range of traditional sports and games which have real socio-cultural and educational stakes but are generally practiced only informally. In spite of presenting real cultural richness in Africa and accessibility to all the local social strata, these traditional sports and games are not integrated in the educational system, unlike modern sports which are practiced, for the most part, from the primary cycle. These traditional sports and games are part of the history, heritage and identity of the African people. Their promotion and safeguarding are, therefore, essential to the preservation of African traditional values.
African Member States are thus urged to find appropriate mechanisms to distribute accurate information about Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) and to deploy efforts to preserve and protect them. This underpins UNESCO’s mission to safeguard, promote and develop TSG, while ensuring that they form an integral part of national and international cultural developments.
As part of intangible cultural heritage, Traditional Sports and Games also enhance intercultural dialogue and peace, reinforce youth empowerment, and promote ethical sport practices. Thus, giving to governments, communities, and individuals the chance to express both cultural pride and richness.
Indeed, safeguarding and promoting Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) as sports practices and intangible cultural heritage is a key tenet for the future development of sport and societies.
“The diversity of physical education, physical activity and sport is a basic feature of their value and appeal. Traditional and indigenous games, dances and sports, also in their modern and emerging forms, express the world’s rich cultural heritage and must be protected and promoted.”
-International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport 2015, Art 1.1.5
The relevance of sport as an enabler for sustainable development” and its "growing contribution to development and peace through tolerance and respect" were recognized by the United Nations (UN) (Sport as an enabler of sustainable development, A/75/251 (2020) At the regional level, sport is considered as a lever of development and a vector of peace that can contribute to the accomplishment of Agenda 2063 of the African Union (AU) “the Africa we want”. It also contributes to the Africa Union theme for 2021, “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for the Edification of the Africa We Want”, and the Sport Policy Framework for Sustainable Development of Sport in Africa, and the Kazan Action Plan.
The outcomes of the Kazan Action Plan (KAP) and priority areas it designed were further echoed in the recommendations of the first Regional Meeting of African Ministers on the Implementation of the KAP in Africa held in Antananarivo, Madagascar, from 10 to 13 September 2019. It is important to further specify and endorse these recommendations and identify priorities Africa, notably in the area of TSG, in order to develop appropriate strategies for its promotion, while mobilizing stronger partnerships between participating governments. This will foster an all-encompassing policy of preserving and enhancing traditional and indigenous sports and games based on the cultural heritage of Africa, thus encouraging the hosting of regional and continental TSG festivals.
Since the adoption of the KAP, African Ministers of Sports have worked towards achieving at least one of the pillars from the recommendations. This is evident in:
- the formation of the African Traditional Sports and Games Confederation in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018.
- the creation of bi-country TSG events to foster bilateral relationships, e.g. Sierra Leone/Guinea games.
- the inclusion of TSG in school curriculum as a major stride towards the safeguarding and promotion of TSG.
- more countries are organizing national TSG festivals, i.e.: Nigeria, Senegal, Niger, Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, etc.

Therefore, it is important to consult by bringing together Member States to come up with appropriate mechanisms for sharing information about traditional sports and games, and to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and capacity-building on TSG, in an attempt to synergize our efforts to preserve and protect them.
Sustainability and continuity remain a major challenge with policy formulation and implementation in in most African States. Therefore, the need to build institutional capacity for effective formulation, implementation and monitoring is at stake. Convening a ministerial webinar on the safeguarding and promotion of TSG is therefore a key step towards achieving a common position on this important area.
Through this webinar, participants will explore and share how TSG is practiced in their respective countries, explore, among other issues, institutional engagement and arrangement that work; policy actor researcher relationship and engagements that most facilitate TSG uptake; strong and coherent advocacy strategies that could provide for effective TSG; and possible time frames that best could support/foster links and relationships among African States.

2. AIMS & OBJECTIVES / GOALS
The interventions under this Webinar on “Safeguarding and Promotion of Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) in Africa” contributes directly to SDGs 3,4,5,10,16 and 17, as will examine the potentials of TSG in promoting respect for difference, intercultural dialogue reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. The main objective of the ministerial webinar is to create a momentum from key stakeholders convened, to further specify and endorse the recommendations that were formulated on Quality Physical Education in particular, and the other areas of the Kazan Action Plan identified as priorities in the Africa region and relevant to push forward an agenda on TSG, including to mobilize partnerships within and governments in favor of Physical Education and Sport.

Other objectives would include, but not limited to:
- Promote integration of traditional sports and games from various regions into schools’ curriculum as a tool for enhancing mutual understanding and cultural pride.
- Increase participation of women and girls in TSG.
- Maximizing the participation of persons living with disability in TSG.
- Resource mobilization (seeking sponsorship) for projects.
- Enhance skills for young women to be empowered and be independent.
- Align national sport policies with the African Union sport policy framework.
- Ensure youth participation in policy development and implementation at all levels.

3. THEMES OF FOCUS
- The impact of TSG research evidence in Africa’s transformation agenda.
- Networks, communities of practice and interests as spaces and places for TSG evidence- informed Policy Safeguarding and promotion.
- Political economies and policy cultures: influence and impact on TSG Policy uptake.
- Communities of practice, networks as pathways for institutionalizing TSG work for sustainability.

4. TARGETS PARTICIPANTS
Number of participants: 54 Member States in Africa
- Ministers of Sports, Culture, Heritage or Representatives
- Senior Officials of Government for Sports and Physical Health Education (PHE)
- Senior Officials of Government for Culture and Heritage
- UNESCO National Commissions
- ATSGC Focal Persons in Member States
- National TSG Associations
- Organizations promoting TSG

Agenda 1

Agenda 2

Agenda 3