The growing number of refugees worldwide, now exceeding 120 million, together with cuts to humanitarian funding, has brought renewed attention to the need to strengthen international response mechanisms. In this context, the Sport for Refugees Coalition has released its position ahead of the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025, highlighting the role of sport as a structural tool for the protection and inclusion of refugees.
The Coalition was established in 2019 within the framework of the Global Refugee Forum and is driven by the International Olympic Committee -IOC-, the United Nations Refugee Agency -UNHCR- and the Olympic Refuge Foundation -ORF-. Since then, it has progressively expanded to bring together more than 140 organisations from across the sport and institutional ecosystem, including international federations, National Olympic Committees, States, refugee-led organisations and civil society actors.
Sport as an institutional tool for refugee inclusion
The statement released by the Sport for Refugees Coalition stresses that sport and play-based activities remain undervalued within humanitarian responses, despite their proven contribution to social cohesion, physical and mental well-being, and the creation of safe environments. The Coalition calls for greater recognition of sport as an operational instrument in refugee contexts, beyond isolated or complementary initiatives.
This approach is underpinned by growth and impact data accumulated since the Global Refugee Forum in 2023. According to information shared by the Coalition, more than 529,000 refugees have accessed sport and play-based programmes in over 92 countries, with more than 11,000 coaches trained and over 160 sport spaces created or refurbished to ensure safe and inclusive access to sport.
Objectives ahead of the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025
The Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025 is conceived as a key follow-up meeting to assess the level of implementation of commitments made under the Global Compact on Refugees. The Sport for Refugees Coalition positions its call to action within this framework, with the aim of embedding sport more firmly within national and local refugee response policies.
The call to action is structured around five areas: explicit recognition of sport in refugee contexts; the integration of sport across pledging areas, from education to mental health; support for the meaningful participation of refugee-led organisations; the strengthening of leadership from low- and middle-income countries; and the reinforcement of local and national partnerships, with particular attention to coordination between ministries of sport, health, education and youth.
Towards 2027 and support from the international sport movement
Looking ahead to the Global Refugee Forum in 2027, the Coalition links these objectives to the development of the Sport Pledge presented in 2023, which already counts commitments from more than 140 entities. Through this framework, the Coalition aims to reach close to 825,000 refugees and members of host communities, with financial commitments amounting to approximately 50 million dollars.
The position released ahead of the Progress Review 2025 is backed by a broad range of international federations, National Olympic Committees and sport organisations, reinforcing the institutional weight of the message and positioning sport as an integrated component of multilateral responses to refugee situations.
