FIBA Foundation and Peace and Sport sign cooperation agreement

MIES/MONACO - The International Basketball Foundation (IBF) and Peace and Sport - L'Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport - on Thursday signed a two-year partnership to promote basketball as a tool for social development.

Peace and Sport is a neutral and international organization based in the Principality of Monaco that aims to bring the structuring values of sport to the heart of communities and individuals in crisis throughout the world and to promote a culture of peace.

The IBF's mission is to address the role of sports, in particular basketball, in the fields of community building, education, health and well-being, as well as conflict resolution. IBF promotes the values and cultural heritage of basketball as a vector for change and develops inclusive programmes to tackle pressing issues that affect children and youth in the concerned communities.

Peace and Sport and the IBF will collaborate where possible and support each other in the development of various sport-based initiatives in vulnerable communities worldwide.

FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Bauman said: "We are very happy to team up with such an experienced organisation as Peace and Sport. Its founder Joël Bouzou, under the patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco has demonstrated for over a decade how sports can be used for change. In joining forces we will hopefully be able to use synergies and share experience."

President and Founder of Peace and Sport, Joël Bouzou, said: "The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FIBA's Foundation (IBF) is opening a new era of peace through sport. People in vulnerable communities and refugee camps around the world will now have the opportunity to improve their living conditions, using basketball and its values as a vector."