Sport policy expert to address leaders on millennium development goals
An expert in sport policy at York St John University has
been invited to give a closing address at an international
conference on the millennium development goals (MDGs).
Davies Banda, Senior Lecturer in Sport Policy
and Development in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences will
give a closing plenary address at the International Parliamentary
Conference on the Millennium Development Goals, ‘Reaching for 2015:
Governance, Accountability and the Role of the Parliamentarian’ on
Thursday 1 December in the Houses of Parliament.
Davies will talk about the role of sport in
global development. He will use the opportunity to call upon
parliamentarians as advocates for global development. Davies will
share the closing plenary with United Nations (UN) AIDS Ambassador
Annie Lennox OBE and Rt Hon. Lord Malloch-Brown KCMG PC, former
Foreign and Commonwealth Minister and Deputy Secretary-General of
the UN. The session will be chaired by Rt Hon. John Bercow MP,
Speaker of the House of Commons who will introduce the three
speakers.
Commenting on his invitation to speak at the
conference Davies said:
“I'm overwhelmed by the invitation and hope to
make a strong appeal to parliamentarians who are intermediaries
between policy makers and poor communities to engage more openly
with street level bureaucrats for concerted effort in achieving the
MDGs.”
He added:
“This recognition is a result of the support
from York St John funding towards research in forms of partnership
working between sports-for-development NGOs and other HIV/AIDS
civil society organisations.”
Davies' speech will be part of the last three
keynote speeches to mark the conclusion of the conference, hosted
by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) UK from 28
November – 1 December 2011. The conference promises to bring
together high profile parliamentarians from commonwealth and
non-commonwealth policy makers, with the aim of building
parliamentary capacity to ensure that effective accountability
mechanisms are at the core of all elements of the MDGs process in
the countdown to the 2015 deadline to meet the targets.
For further information please
contact Amy Hall, PR & Communications Officer on
T: 01904 876466 or E: a.hall@yorksj.ac.uk
