KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Commonwealth Secretariat is expected tomorrow to unveil a four-dimensional strategy to help governments sustain the sport sector which has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unveiling of the ‘Data, Digital, Diversify and anti-Discrimination’ strategy is scheduled for the Commonwealth Ministerial Forum on Sport and COVID-19 to be held virtually on Thursday, July 23. 

The virtual forum will hear from ministers, senior officials and representatives of sport bodies and regional organisations on how they are responding to and planning to recover from the COVID-19 shocks in the sport sector and ensure the Secretariat’s work is finely tuned to their existing and emerging needs.

The strategy, the secretariat said, is expected to help governments design, modify and implement resilient sport policies and programmes to tackle the pandemic’s impact on the sector. 

It was predicated on a new Commonwealth-supported study which showed the industry is expected to experience a recession several times worse than the average sector of any economy. 

 As the secretariat explained it, the ‘data’ pillar provides critical research on COVID-19’s impact on the sport sector to help countries monitor and better target responses. The ‘digital’ pillar offers a repository of COVID-19-adapted virtual solutions, including training courses and knowledge products, which are reproducible and accessible to all member countries. The ‘diversify’ pillar contains policy guidelines to modify modes of delivery to get more people active safely and spread investment and resources to grow domestic sport markets. And the final pillar includes a call to action to intensify the fight against racism and discrimination in and through sport in the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said: “It is clear the sport and physical activity sector demands consideration in the ongoing response to the current pandemic and the preparation for any future outbreaks.

“It is important then for member countries to take advantage of our suite of new resources, cleverly designed to help them respond to the new COVID reality and create pandemic-resilient sectors and populations.