Paris 2024 and the City of Paris sign with Yunus

Robert Fawdon, Nov 8, 2016: The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid Committee has today signed a partnership agreement with the Yunus Centre (http://www.muhammadyunus.org/) – the one-stop, global resource centre for social business related activities founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus.

The agreement comes as Professor Yunus today opened a dedicated Centre in Paris to help build social business in the city and bring international attention to the project.

The Yunus Centre strives to engage individuals and organisations in creating, promoting and maintaining social business by spreading the concept through workshops, internships and projects. The centre also helps forge lasting, productive relationships among all social business institutions around the world.

Through the agreement, Paris 2024 has committed to using the bid and the delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a tool for the promotion of social business in the Paris area and beyond, to help improve the quality of life of citizens, increase social inclusion and support sustainable and equitable development.

This will include the implementation of the following initiatives:

A joint social business programme with the French National Olympic Committee and the French Olympians Association dedicated to career change for high level athletes after their sporting career

In order to reduce poverty and unemployment, the parties will:

Support and assist young people from local communities to ensure that they fully benefit from the 250,000 jobs created by the Paris 2024 Games

Work alongside businesses that specialise in social and professional integration in order to assist those most isolated from the employment market

o Create and implement a social charter for the Paris 2024 Organising Committee

o Support contractors in their corporate social responsibility approach and product development, taking into account the principles of social business

o Set up a volunteer programme for the Olympic and Paralympic Games combined with a training programme leading to Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning

 Building on the work of the Paris 2024 Environmental Excellence Committee, devise and implement a plan to restrict greenhouse gasses and the development of a zero waste policy

The agreement will take effect from today and will be fully operational when the Host City of the 2024 Games is selected. In line with the bid’s commitment on sustainability, the parties will base their cooperation on sustainable practices to drive down poverty, unemployment and carbon footprint.

Working groups will be set up to define the ways and means to implement the agreed actions.
Paris 2024 CEO, Etienne Thobois, said:

“We are delighted to sign this partnership agreement with the City of Paris and the Yunus Centre to take action in the field of social innovation and the sustainable development of cities. Sport and the organisation of sports events has a unique power to promote peace and social and economic inclusiveness and by setting out clear objectives in this area we are committed to creating a genuine legacy with real benefits for the people of Paris and France.”

Founder of the Yunus Centre and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus, said:

• “I am thrilled to launch the new Yunus Centre in this magnificent global city of Paris. I am confident that our new facility will help social business to take root in Paris, and spread across Europe and around the world. Involvement of Paris in social business will give out strong message that we can use our creative capacity to bring poverty, unemployment, and net carbon emission to zero.”Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said:
  “Paris is an open, sharing city that is committed to addressing social inequality through innovation and sustainable practices. Today’s partnership agreement between Paris 2024, the City of Paris and the Yunus Centre reflects our commitment to use social business as a means to achieve these aims. By working collaboratively and with a shared passion, we can leverage the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to create real change across all aspects of society.”