For many the UN brings to mind a picture of Security Council negotiations and debates over weighty international problems. Still, if you pull back the curtain of mystique, you see an unexpected variety of UN programmes changing lives in practical but important ways. UN programmes collaborate with governments, the private sector, and other partners to improve health, education, and living standards around the world.

Over the past decade, the UN has increasingly recognised the importance of sport in promoting development and peace — from reducing tensions between social groups to raising awareness about the risks of HIV/AIDS with help from sports stars. In order to call attention to sport’s valuable role, the 191 UN member countries unanimously declared 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education.

Sport is creating social change, widening opportunities for women and girls: In Kenya, the Together for Girls project was established by the UN High Commissioner for Refug-ees to encourage girls to participate in sports to get them to attend and stay in school. The result has been an 88 per cent increase in enrolment at the pre-school level, and a 75 per cent increase in girls participation in sports. Such initiatives will be highlighted at an international summit, Effecting Social Change through Women’s Leadership in Sport, October 20-22 in Atlanta.

Indeed, throughout the world, women are increasingly taking the lead by engaging their communities in an innovative fashion to break down stereotypes and shatter barriers in the process. Consider one example of a leader who is changing culture on and off the athletic field: Molly Barker, a world-class tri-athlete and four-time Hawaii Iron man tri-athlete, founded and directs Girls on the Run International, which encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. This volunteer-led network of community-level councils across the US and Canada serves as a role model through a 12-week, 24-lesson curriculum delivered in settings like after-school programmes.

Initiatives like this one encourage governments and organisations of all kinds to mobilise sport as a powerful tool for effecting lasting social change. At the Atlanta summit, Olympic women medallists, pioneering sportscasters, educators, and others will illuminate how sport and physical education play an important role at all levels.

For individuals, they enhance personal abilities, general health, and self- knowledge. On the national level, they contribute to economic and social growth, improve public health, and bring different communities together. And on the global level, sport and physical education have a long-lasting positive impact on development, public health, peace, and the sustainable management of the environment.

We must encourage people every-where to recognise the world-chan-ging potential of sport and physical education. And, even more so, the potential of all women around the globe. — The Christian Science Monitor