This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.

I'm joined by Maha Nasser, who is the director of Outreach Communications across the

Global Division of the United Nations.

To talk about this day and this day, to be quite honest with you,

is a day which is the International Day for Sport and Development and Peace

pulled together by the UN. And Maha, I'm sure you have

plans around this day six months ago that were quite different to what it's become

it's very much become something where you're encouraging people to be active and

healthy at home first and foremost. Yes, yes indeed Neil I mean nothing we have

planned or anybody has planned six months ago is happening as it was planned to be now.

The International Sports for Development and Peace was adopted by the General Assembly of the UN in 2013 and

has been observed every year on the 6th of April since 2014.

Our plan was actually to do a joint event at the UN with the group of member states that are called

Friends of the Sports for Sustainable Development, which is shared by Monaco and Qatar.

And within that we had an event which would have been moderated by a sports broadcaster. People talk about the link between sports,

development, peace, sustainability, and giving live examples from different kinds of sports.

With COVID-19 and the impact it has had on

everybody's life around the world, of course the UN also decided that we need to

work from home, no mass gatherings, so we had to adjust the

entire concept to a virtual campaign, but also bringing it back to what is on people's minds, which is the coronavirus and the fact that they are being asked to stay at home.

So we are now observing it as encouraging people to be active while at home.

It's the day itself the history of the day before we get onto the specific current reality.

...