Youth Charter Organisation
On UN International Youth Day 2025, the Youth Charter, a UK-based charity with a 32-year record of engaging, equipping, and empowering young people in over 40 countries, has issued a powerful Global Call to Action.
The organisation urges the global community to unite in a renewed, evidence-based effort to harness Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) as a critical tool to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
As the world enters the final five years before the SDG deadline, progress on many targets has stalled or reversed, threatening to undermine global development efforts.
Without urgent, coordinated action, the Youth Charter warns, the potential of a generation risks being lost.
“The next five years are critical. We must go beyond symbolic gestures and deliver real, measurable impact,” said Professor Geoff Thompson MBE FRSA DL, Founder and Chair of the Youth Charter.
“Sport is not an optional extra – it is an essential driver of health, education, equality, peace, and opportunity. We need a truly collective, global effort to make the 2030 Goals a reality for every young person.”
Three Urgent Priorities in the Global Call to Action
The Youth Charter’s Global Call to Action, which was first launched in 2019 as #LegacyOpportunity4All, highlights the following priorities:
- Mobilising a Global SDP Fund – dedicated, transparently managed funding to invest in community-led projects that directly address SDG targets.
- Empowering Authentic Leadership – supporting grassroots social coaches, mentors, and youth leaders with training, resources, and recognition.
- Embedding Evidence and Accountability – aligning all initiatives with SDG indicators and publishing verifiable impact data.
Evidence of Impact
The Youth Charter’s work spans a global footprint from Moss Side in Manchester, Soweto in South Africa, and Islamabad in Pakistan to Louisville in the United States.
Programmes like the Social Coach Leadership Programme and the Community Campus Model have been replicated internationally, offering safe spaces, skills development, and opportunities to young people.
The organisation’s work has shown sport’s positive influence on various SDGs, including:
- SDG 3 (Health): Reducing youth obesity, improving mental health, and increasing life expectancy.
- SDG 4 (Education): Improving school attendance and attainment through sport-linked learning.
- SDG 5 (Gender Equality): Expanding access and leadership opportunities for young women in sport.
- SDG 8 (Decent Work): Creating employment pathways through coaching qualifications and event volunteering.
- SDG 11 (Sustainable Communities): Reducing crime and revitalising neighbourhoods through Community Campuses.
- SDG 16 (Peace): Using sport to build trust, reduce violence, and foster reconciliation in conflict-affected areas.
- SDG 17 (Partnerships): Forging cross-sector alliances between governments, NGOs, sports bodies, and businesses.
A Moment for Collective Action
Ahead of International Youth Day 2025, the Youth Charter submitted its essay, “From Rhetoric to Reality: A Global Call to Action for Sport for Development and Peace,” to the UN and the International Olympic Committee leadership.
This briefing urges;
- Governments to embed sport in national youth strategies.
- International institutions to coordinate global SDP policy and practice.
- The private sector and philanthropic organisations to invest strategically in grassroots sport.
- Youth leaders to design and lead locally driven, SDG-aligned projects.
- Academia to provide robust, independent impact evaluation.
The organisation stresses that sport is far more than recreation.
It is an essential driver of health, education, equality, peace, and opportunity for young people worldwide.
With the 2030 deadline fast approaching, only a collective, transparent, and evidence-based global effort can transform commitments into real, measurable progress.
