In a context where sport is increasingly emerging as a driver of social impact and cohesion, Res Sportiva and Peace and Sport are joining forces around a shared ambition: to build a global, evidence-based understanding of “sport for impact.” Through the International Panorama of Sport for Impact, this strategic partnership aims to highlight change-making initiatives, strengthen synergies among sector stakeholders, and foster dialogue between the field, research, and public decision-makers. To learn more about the goals, ambitions, and perspectives behind this collaboration, we sat down with David Blough, Co-Founder of Res Sportiva, and Jean-Jérôme Perrin Mortier, CEO of Peace and Sport.
1. WHAT IS THE AMBITION BEHIND THE INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA OF SPORT FOR IMPACT?
David Blough:
We need to give visibility to organizations leading initiatives in the field of sport and impact. We need a “snapshot” that reflects current trends and provides evidence-based insights to help this ecosystem grow. This study is one of Res Sportiva’s flagship projects, whose purpose is precisely to identify and understand “what works” in order to share it more widely.
Jean-Jérôme Perrin Mortier:
For Peace and Sport, joining this panorama was an obvious choice. For nearly twenty years, Joël Bouzou, our Founder and President, and our teams have been advocating for a collaborative approach to sport in the service of peace. Working in coalition is one of the pillars of our action, and this project perfectly embodies that philosophy. Partnering with others allows us to maintain our uniqueness while contributing our “culture of peace” expertise and learning from the initiatives led by other actors in the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) movement.
Contributing to this panorama gives us an opportunity to highlight inspiring stories, best practices, and early scientific results, in order to encourage decision-makers to invest further in this approach with strong human and societal impact.
2. WHAT WILL BE PEACE AND SPORT’S MAIN AREAS OF CONTRIBUTION?
Jean-Jérôme Perrin Mortier:
Our role is that of a connector between grassroots actors — whom we call “Peacemakers” — and institutional, political, and economic decision-makers. Drawing on our experience, we seek to facilitate dialogue, promoting constructive exchange and coherent action in the service of peace through sport.
Within this panorama, our main areas of contribution will focus on:
- Showcasing “Peacemakers”, the women and men who take action every day in often fragile contexts, whose initiatives deserve to be made visible and supported.
- Sharing expertise on how sport can be integrated into international public policies as a tool for cohesion, inclusion, and peace.
- Providing data, analyses, and testimonials from the field programs we support, to enrich the panorama with tangible and inspiring content.
Our ambition is for this collective effort to strengthen synergies among the various actors in the field and amplify the social utility of sport on a global scale.
3. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE PEACE AND SPORT AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER?
David Blough:
This cooperation was a natural fit. Peace and Sport is a historic player in the sector, successfully bridging public policy and grassroots action. It is important to make this connection between local initiatives while also exploring opportunities for scaling up. Moreover, there are few organizations at the international level capable of developing initiatives in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and beyond. This experience is essential for us and will help us structure our approach, identify case studies, and analyze results. Peace and Sport also brings strong advocacy expertise, which will be crucial when launching the Panorama.
4. WHAT WILL MEDIUM-TERM COLLABORATIONS LOOK LIKE?
Jean-Jérôme Perrin Mortier:
Peace and Sport will work closely with all partners gathered around Res Sportiva to co-develop this panorama, which aims to enrich the SDP sector as a whole. We will actively contribute to defining the editorial direction, selecting and highlighting inspiring examples, and structuring key themes related to peace through sport.
This collaboration will also involve in-depth work on disseminating and promoting the results among decision-makers, sports institutions, and international organizations.
David Blough:
Beyond the Panorama, I believe we will have many other projects to develop together. We have launched a thematic publication series called “Insight”, with the first edition focusing on social innovation through sport in prisons. It would be very interesting to produce one dedicated to peace through sport — a logical next step in a long-term collaboration. Given the richness of our exchanges about the sector, I am confident that other initiatives will emerge in the future.
