A UN task force called Wednesday for sports to be given a greater role in promoting development and peace worldwide.
A report by the UN Task Force on Sport and Development urges governments, nongovernment organizations and sports federations to use sports as a tool to bridge differences and develop economies.
"It first of all makes a very strong advocacy for the idea that sport is a practical and a cost-effective vehicle to assist the UN system in proceeding forward to achieve the millennium goals," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund who co-chairs the task force.
Those goals set specific targets for 2015 including cutting in half the number of people living in extreme poverty, ensuring that all children have an elementary school education, providing all people access to clean water, and halting and reversing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In spite of the positive benefits of sports, the report said physical education has been marginalized in at least 126 countries "where it is often seen as non-productive, non-intellectual and therefore a non-essential component of education."
The report is based on the declaration and recommendations adopted by an international conference on sport and development held in Switzerland in February to mobilize governments, UN agencies, sports federations, the sporting goods industry, and people and organizations around the globe to work together to promote development through sports.
The conference's declaration and recommendations were officially handed over to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday by his special adviser on sport for development and peace, Adolf Ogi.
"When soldiers or refugees go somewhere the first thing they ask for is, of course, food. The second thing they ask for is shelter and the third thing they ask is to be able to play football or to play with a ball," Ogi, a former Swiss president and skier, told reporters after delivering the report.
Speaking about the experience of introducing sports in refugee camps in Uganda he said: "We have taught them to lose without thinking that that's the end. We have taught them to win without thinking they are the best. We have taught them to respect the opponent."
He said the UNwas opening a soccer school this month in the town of Ramallah on the West Bank that both Palestinians and Israelis would be able to attend.
Touching on health issues, the UN report said the lack of physical activity was a direct cause of nearly two million deaths globally. It said over 60 percent of adults were not involved in sufficient sporting and physical activity.
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