Sport for Refugees Coalition (SFRC)

The Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies is a member of the Sport for Refugees Coalition. Co-convened by the Scort Foundation, the Olympic Refuge Foundation, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the Sport for Refugees Coalition brings together more than 80 entities from the world of sport, civil society, public and private sectors to extend access to sport to refugees and other displaced people around the world. It also provides a platform for members to connect with others involved in sport with and for displaced and host communities, to share and learn from good practices, and acts as a focal point for joint communication and advocacy efforts promoting sport as an essential tool in displacement settings.

In advance of the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, the Sport for Refugees Coalition developed the “Multistakeholder Pledge on Sport for Inclusion and Protection,” which offers an opportunity for entities that are already or are interested in working with and through sport to come together and pledge concrete commitments to support refugees and host communities.

In our Pledge, the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University Cologne has committed to increasing our efforts in exploring the role of sport in the refugee context through participatory research, in which we will highly value the contributions and perspectives of refugees and displaced people. We also plan to deliver more teaching activities discussing the role of sport in the refugee context, thereby also actively engaging students with the issue. Further, we will facilitate dissemination of our research, including setting up knowledge sharing activities in the global sport for development community, as well as engaging our wider academic network and encouraging them to do the same.