Football + Responsibility + Sustainable Programmes + Commitment =
The Football for Hope Movement

If all the elements in this formula are present in the right proportions, we can be optimistic about the football family's chances of making a real contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

Due to its values, its popularity, its universal nature and its appeal, football (in all of its forms) can be seen as the ideal instrument for achieving social and human development targets and tackling many of the major problems faced by society today.

Football has a positive effect on those who play it, both in terms of health (physical activity) and life skills (the values of team sport), but beyond that the game serves as an effective tool in community programmes for social development.

FIFA and streetfootballworld have been using football as an instrument for social development for more than a decade and in a variety of different ways. But it was only a year ago that the two organisations started working together in order to consolidate their efforts in this area and aspire to achieve even more.

FIFA's approach to its humanitarian activities has seen a critical evolution in recent years. A change from a "charitable giving" approach to a meaningful "socially responsible, involved, and committed" one. This new approach enables a more direct affiliation of FIFA with the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and communities, as the entities holding the expertise needed to be successful in the field of social development.

Interestingly, within the context of social development through football, the word "football" has a very broad meaning and comprises any form of the game: formal or informal; 11-a-side, 7-a-side or 4-a-side; on a grass pitch or on the streets of a slum. In summary, football is for FIFA not only the "end" of the organisation's efforts, but also a "means": a tool for achieving other ambitious goals in social and human development terms.

In line with the agreement that industrialised countries reached at the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey in 2002 to contribute 0.7% of their GDP towards development aid, FIFA has also decided to commit at least that percentage of its overall revenue to social development through football.

FIFA is an international organisation with members in 207 countries and, therefore, the Football for Hope movement will aim to have more or less global coverage. For the 2007-2010 period, however, the main geographic focus will be the African continent. The "Win in Africa with Africa" initiative - which was launched by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, with the intention of ensuring that the whole African continent benefits from the exposure granted by the world's largest single-sport event during the four-year period leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa - will "boost" the permanent activities of Football for Hope in Africa, make the entire organisation put an emphasis on that continent, and provide additional financial resources for African projects.

streetfootballworld's vision, in turn, is to develop a centre of competence that interconnects and strengthens long-term, football-based social development initiatives that transform the lives of disadvantaged individuals around the world, increasing their opportunities and consolidating an environment of social change on a global scale.

In the course of the 2002-2006 cycle, a global network has been developed, which today incorporates more than 80 development organisations worldwide with the objective being to share their existing know-how and to develop the quality of their local development work. All of these member organisations have identified football as the most efficient tool to reach their diverse local development goals. The streetfootballworld festival 06, an official part of the Artistic and Cultural Programme of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Germany, was the first visible landmark for the global network, drawing together 24 member organisations to show off their expertise and contest the streetfootballworld Cup, the Copa Andrés Escobar.

The social responsibility targets that FIFA and streetfootballworld are working towards are similar enough to make collaboration between the two organisations both logical and desirable. Experience of working together since the signature of their strategic alliance in 2005 has confirmed the organisations' shared outlook and is proof of the adage that "one plus one is three".

The Football for Hope movement is the key element of the strategic alliance, led by FIFA in its capacity as world football's governing body and streetfootballworld as the driving force behind a global network of non-governmental organisations, developing projects on the ground, in which football is the common denominator.

The objective of the Football for Hope movement is to bring together, support, advise and strengthen sustainable social and human development programmes in the areas of peace promotion, children's rights & education, health promotion, anti-discrimination & social integration, and the environment. These programmes must be aimed at children and young people, and use football as an instrument to promote participation and dialogue.

The aim of Football for Hope is to create a better future through the medium of football. FIFA and streetfootballworld intend the movement to be the football family's most significant contribution to the achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. It also aims to establish a solid basis of more than 100 sustainable programmes on all continents by 2015 whose contribution to the UN's goals will be specific, tangible and positive.

In order to realise its objective to "build a better future", FIFA is taking its role very seriously and has made the Football for Hope movement a subject of strategic importance and developed a long-term development plan in alliance with streetfootballworld.

A global governance mechanism in the framework of the streetfootballworld network in combination with a trans-national monitoring & evaluation system will be developed and implemented in order to guarantee quality programmes on the ground as well as 100% transparency and accountability in relation to the resources allocated.

The strategy breaks down into the following goals for the next decade:

• 1. To align FIFA's CSR goals even more closely with the Millennium Development Goals.

• 2. To strengthen the link with NGOs worldwide through the streetfootballworld network as implementing partners of Football for Hope.

• 3. To strengthen and replicate the best existing "development through football" programmes and to give them visibility as part of a global movement.

• 4. To have a worldwide impact during the entire 2006-2015 period, placing special focus on Africa (2007-2010) and South America (2011-2014), by organising social programmes and promoting best practices on the ground.

• 5. To use the Football for Hope movement to spearhead football's contribution to social development and to guarantee the organisation of a periodic forum where best practices can be shared among members of the movement.

• 6. To assist the public and private sectors, UN agencies and the football world in their relationship with/support of the programmes of the Football for Hope movement, thus creating opportunities for direct financial support to the members of the streetfootballworld network.

• 7. To continue to use FIFA competitions as a platform for proactively running social campaigns and to organise Football for Hope matches as awareness-raising opportunities for various issues.

• 8. To establish a Football for Hope festival as an official element of the FIFA World Cup (from 2010 onwards) and a milestone in the development of the global streetfootballworld network, ensuring the continuation of the streetfootballworld festival 06.

• 9. To promote a socially responsible approach among FIFA member associations, clubs and players and to involve them in activities with local grassroots programmes worldwide. To reinforce the content of FIFA courses with a specific module on CSR and best practices.

• 10. To work in closer cooperation with FIFA partners in the field of CSR.

• 11. To help develop and implement a monitoring & evaluation system that will enable the Football for Hope movement to measure more accurately the success of its various programmes.

• 12. To develop a strategic plan for the use of mini-pitches as key physical spaces in communities and core elements in their development, thus creating synergies with FIFA's development concepts.

• 13. To improve communication and increase participation in international forums and conferences on social development through sport, to publish a manual and create an online toolbox on social development through football.

• 14. To introduce an annual Football for Hope Award to recognise individuals or organisations that have made a significant contribution to social/community improvement through football.

We are convinced of football's social potential and committed to development - for the good of the game and the good of society as a whole.