Young girl skateboards down a ramp in pink gear as others gather around the outdoor park.
Sport can serve as a powerful catalyst for peace, inclusion, and international development.
Photo:pixfly/Adobe Stock

2026 Theme: Sport: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers

The 2026 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace will spotlight the theme “Sport: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers,” underscoring sport’s unique capacity to foster connection, inclusion, and peace in an increasingly fragmented world.

As a universal language that transcends cultural, social, and boundaries, sport serves as a powerful catalyst for social transformation. Sport connects communities across borders and generations, reducing isolation among marginalized groups, and creating spaces for dialogue, solidarity, and mutual respect.

The 2026 International Day will highlight evidence-based approaches and best practices demonstrating how sport contributes measurably to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly in advancing health, gender equality, reduced inequalities, and peaceful, inclusive societies. Through dialogue, partnerships, and shared experiences, IDSDP 2026 will reaffirm sport’s role as a strategic tool for building bridges between people and breaking down barriers to inclusion, leaving no one behind.

 

Background

Due to its vast reach, unparalleled popularity and foundation of positive values, sport is ideally positioned to contribute towards the United Nations’ objectives for development and peace.

To raise awareness of this potential, 6 April was declared as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) by the UN General Assembly. The adoption of this Day signifies the increasing recognition by the UN of the positive influence that sport can have on the advancement of human rights, and social and economic development.

In its Resolution (A/RES/67/296) establishing the Day, the General Assembly

invites States, the United Nations system and, in particular, the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace, relevant international organizations, and international, regional and national sport organisations, civil society including, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, and all other relevant stakeholders to cooperate, observe and raise awareness of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace."

The power of sport values

a climber amidst beautiful mountains

Sports can play a key role in bringing people together and championing climate action. Read more about youth in action here.

Related observances

Sport and Sustainable Development

Sport has proven to be a cost-effective and flexible tool in promoting peace and development objectives. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sport’s role for social progress is further acknowledged: "Sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development. We recognize the growing contribution of sport to the realization of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities as well as to health, education and social inclusion objectives."

 

Football for the Goals

Football for the Goals  (FFTG) is a United Nations membership-based initiative that provides a platform for the global football community to engage with and advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is an opportunity to build on football’s powerful and influential reach and for football organizations to work together to become agents of change by aligning messaging, strategies and operations with the aspirations of the SDGs.

This initiative inspires and guides the world of football - from grassroots clubs and NGOs to professional leagues and international confederations -  to build on existing sustainability approaches and to implement SDG-related strategies that lead to behavioural change. Members also use their visibility and outreach power to raise the profile of the SDGs through amplification and advocacy.

 

an abstract illustration of people engaged in an event

International days and weeks are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. We also mark other UN observances.