On Tuesday the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid committee signed a partnership agreement with the Yunus Centre – a global resource centre for social business related activities. It was founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus.
The Yunus Centre strives to engage individuals and organizations in creating, promoting and maintaining social busiiness by spreading the concept through workshops, internships and projects. Paris 2024 says it also helps forge lasting, productive relations among all social business institutions around the world.
Under the agreement, Paris 2024 has committed to using the bid and the delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a tool for the promotion of social business in the Paris area and beyond, to help improve the quality of life of citizens, increase social inclusion and support sustainable and equitable development.
To reduce poverty and unemployment, the parties under the agreement will support and assist young people from local communities to ensure they fully benefit from the 250,000 jobs created by the Paris 2024 Games, work alongside business that specialize in social and professional integration in order to assist the most isolated from the employment market, create and implement a social charter for Paris 2024, support contractors in their corporate social responsibility approach and product development, taking into account the principles of social business, set up a volunteer program for the Olympic and Paralympic Games combined with a training program leading to Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, and build on the work of the Paris 2024 Environmental Excellence Committee to devise and implement a plan to restrict greenhouse gasses and the development of a zero waste policy.
The agreement took effect Tuesday and will be fully operational when the host city for the 2024 Games is selected. The parties will base their cooperation on sustainable practices to drive down poverty, unemployment and carbon footprint. Working groups will be set up to define the ways and means to implement the agreed actions.
Paris 2024 CEO Etienne Thobois said, “we are delighted to sign this partnership agreement with the City of Paris and the Yunus Centre to take action in the field of social innovation and the sustainable development of cities. Sport and the organization of sports events has a unique power to promote peace and social and economic inclusiveness and by setting out clear objectives in this area we are committed to creating a genuine legacy with real benefits for the people of Paris and France”.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo added, “Paris is an open, sharing city that is committed to addressing social inequality through innovation and sustainable practices. Today’s partnership agreement between Paris 2024, the City of Paris and the Yunus Centre reflects our commitment to use social business as a means to achieve these aims. By working collaboratively and with a shared passion, we can leverage the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to create real change across all aspects of society”.
Paris is competing with Budapest and Los Angeles for the 2024 Games. The host city will be elected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) September 13.
