Ms Catherine Carty:

Investment in sport for development is a growing marketplace that is showing remarkable returns across social, educational, health, well-being and economic domains. Growing evidence of the powerful impact of sport-based investment makes sport a core development tool, an enabler of the UN's sustainable development goals and a strong proposition for enabling societies to build back better after the Covid-19 crisis. Investment outcomes are evidenced from data built from the bottom up, that is, from local implementation in grassroots sport. Thanks to innovative financing strategies, outcomes data can now create scalable, inter-sectoral and inter-agency funding opportunities, stimulating real opportunities at the grassroots level.

Through its new global alliance, Fit for Life, UNESCO is creating innovative opportunities for newcomers to realise this full investment potential. Fit for Life is a world-class international consortium that researches the impact of sport participation while growing its data bank of research. It delivers robust SROI data to create low-risk, outcomes-based investment opportunities to scale up funding in this area. Central to the Fit for Life programme are SOCs, which offer potential partners, such as development banks, an effective, measurable framework to build capacity and promote sustainable development.

SOCs represent a powerful new vision for sport investment and a win-win-win proposition for investors. SOC data accurately predict the multi-sectoral cost savings of a sports-based implementation. This risk-averse approach allows governments and investors to pay only for outcomes recorded and verified independently. Early adopters, including governments, development banks and philanthropic organisations, are already tapping into this market, piloting proof-of-concept SOCs, building local data and preparing to scale up their investment. The most advanced of UNESCO's SOC projects is a partnership with the Development Bank of Latin America, CAF. UEFA's chair at Munster Technological University, MTU, is collaborating with CAF on this pilot initiative. This SOC targets the priority areas of disability, equal access and inclusion in physical activity.

Ireland is well-positioned to become a champion in outcomes-based investments in sport for development by partnering with UNESCO and Fit for Life. UNESCO and Fit for Life invite interested investors to support project development and scale up and pilot their own social outcomes contracts. Contracts are flexible and developed based on critical outcomes relevant to the ministries overseeing sport, health, finance, education, inclusion and many other areas.

Ireland's national sports policy core values align entirely with this outcomes-based investment approach. Both are evidence-led and outcomes-focused. Both prioritise monitoring, evaluation and accountability, promote inclusion and seek to foster collaboration within and beyond the sports sector. Partnering with Fit for Life is an ideal way for Ireland to advance national objectives using a win-win-win investment approach at the cutting edge of sport for development.