Paris 2024 and the IOC Young Leaders Programme team up to empower African youth through basketball and contribute to Olympism365

With the Olympic Games Paris 2024 now less than a year away, excitement is already building ahead of what will be a historic sporting moment for France and the French population. But while fans look forward to watching the world’s greatest athletes in action, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee is also focused on ensuring the Games have a wider impact, creating a lasting legacy of social change far beyond the field of play and even the host nation.

To achieve this vision, Paris 2024 partnered with the French Development Agency (AFD) to launch Impact 2024 International – an initiative that offers funding and support to projects that use sport as a tool for sustainable development in Africa.

Since 2021, the programme has supported 45 projects in 19 African countries, with an investment of EUR 1.4 million. By promoting issues such as health, well-being, education, inclusion and equality, the supported initiatives all respond to local needs and aim to achieve a sustainable improvement in living conditions, while empowering vulnerable communities. So far, almost 80,000 people have benefitted from the projects, which all carry the “Impact 2024” label, recognising their contribution to the legacy of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Making basketball more accessible for Moroccan youth through the 3x3 model

One of the projects to earn the Impact 2024 label, and then consequently become part of the IOC Young Leaders Programme, is United Maroc, launched by Najib Chajiddine, a French-Moroccan who aims to make sport more accessible, diverse and inclusive for young people in Morocco – in particular young women and girls. To help achieve this goal, Chajiddine has opened the first 3x3 basketball academy in Africa, where he is able to offer supervised coaching and tournaments to underprivileged youth, while also providing training in refereeing, enabling them to develop important interpersonal skills, which is also provided as a part of the programme curriculum.

“My deep desire is to make sport, especially basketball, more accessible for Moroccan youth,” explains Chajiddine. “The project was born when I identified several different needs within the community. First, I noticed the lack of structured, supervised sports activities for the middle- and low-income population, and I also observed limited sports opportunities for girls and young women.”

Chajiddine chose Zenata – a new eco-city to the north-east of Casablanca – as the location for United Maroc, as he saw basketball as an opportunity to bring the community together and promote inclusion and social cohesion, with many of the city’s residents having been relocated to Zenata from other parts of the country.

“The objective is to offer free access for everyone, regardless of geographical or social origin, so we can live together and build the feeling of belonging to one, single community,” he explains. “United Maroc also widely promotes gender equality, facilitating girls' and women's access to the world of sport, which is still predominantly male, by setting up tournaments and events organised by all-female staff, for women of all ages and backgrounds. This provides them with the space to develop and express their leadership skills and assertiveness.”

“A big difference with small infrastructure”

Chajiddine’s passion for basketball developed as a child growing up in Quimper, in the north-west of France. Despite first falling in love with football, he soon found the wet weather of the Brittany region often made the pitches inaccessible, so he and his friends instead turned their focus to indoor basketball.

While playing competitively throughout his youth, he also took up refereeing, eventually climbing the ranks to officiate in the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. Alongside running United Maroc, his goal now is to referee at next year’s Olympic 3x3 event in Paris, having fallen in love with the fast-paced, urban version of the sport, which made its Olympic debut at the Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010 before joining the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020.

“We share the same values and objectives,” he says of 3x3. “It is, above all, a discipline that promotes diversity and inclusion through sport.”

In addition to those values, Chajiddine saw 3x3 as the perfect medium to drive social change and empowerment in Morocco thanks to its inherent accessibility, with games requiring only a half-court and one basket.

“I just wanted to give back to my community,” he says. “And 3x3 was the best opportunity to make a big difference with small infrastructure.”

“The best opportunity at the best time”

In addition to earning support from Paris 2024 through Impact 2024 International, Chajiddine’s desire to make a difference through sport also saw him offered the chance to join the IOC Young Leaders Programme.

The support of both programmes has been vital in ensuring United Maroc can have the biggest impact possible.

“The IOC Young Leaders Programme and Impact 2024 are both initiatives established to empower young people and engage them in promoting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect within their communities, 365 days a year,” he says. “We are young change-makers, encouraged to use sport as a tool for positive change.

“Both programmes offer support, mentorship and networking opportunities to help people like me carry out their projects and make a positive impact in their communities and beyond.

“For me and for the United Maroc project, the IOC Young Leaders Programme represents the best opportunity coming at the best time. The combination of 3x3, the IOC Young Leaders Programme and United Maroc is making sparks fly and, since onboarding, we've had a lot of advice from seasoned experts who have helped us get to where we are today.”

IOC Young Leaders Programme is contributing to Olympism 365 days a year

Launched in 2016, the IOC Young Leaders Programme empowers young people to leverage the power of sport to make a positive difference in their communities, and therefore contributes to the Olympism365 strategy, aimed at strengthening the role of sport as an important enabler for the UN Sustainable Development Goals – which it achieves by collaborating with a range of partners from both within and outside the Olympic Movement.

So far, with the support of the IOC, these inspiring young people have delivered over 140 sport-led projects in communities across the globe, promoting education and livelihoods, equality and inclusion, health, peace building and sustainability, directly benefitting more than 30,000 people. Learn more about the IOC Young Leaders Programme and the Olympism365 strategy.

Worldwide Olympic Partner Panasonic’s continued support

The IOC Young Leaders Programme has been supported by Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic Partner Panasonic since 2017, and this will continue through to 2024. Panasonic, as the programme’s founding partner, is committed to supporting the IOC Young Leaders through different initiatives, for example providing its creative and technological expertise, along with its network of influencers and ambassadors, to inspire the Young Leaders and equip them with the skills and tools they need to enhance their projects.

Find out more about Panasonic’s support for the programme.