THE HONOURABLE ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR YOUTH AND SPORTS
ILIESA DELANA

Ladies and Gentlemen

Bula vinaka, Namaste, Salaam aleikum and a very good morning to you all!

I am delighted to be here this morning sharing few insights to my personal journey in sports and the transition from being a Paralympic athlete to the Assistant Minister of Youth and Sport.

Later I will also be speaking on the fundamental rights of persons with disability with reference to the United Nations convention.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hail from Nadrala village in Nadroga having maternal links to Nigani, Batiki in Lomaiviti.

Living with disability is not easy, and like many individuals I also experienced unwarranted comments at some point in life.
I did not want to believe what people said, as I always thought that I am able and capable of doing all things if I put my heart, mind and spiritual beliefs to use.

Thus I decided to use sports as an avenue to further my aspirations and career. I participated in a number of sporting events, each one requiring me to push beyond my limits, to give that extra bit of effort.

Through dedication, commitment and perseverance I was able to achieve my goals, achieving gold medals in High jump in Malaysia, in Tokyo Japan, Darwin and also gold medal at the Arafura Games in Australia.

However, my greatest highlight has been winning the Gold Medal in High Jump during the Paralympic Games in London for my country.

Representing my country and to be awarded the gold medal during the games was in itself an enriching experience.

This changed my life - I received overwhelming accolades from both local and international audience and the government of the day also recognized my efforts and achievements.

I was appointed to the position of Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports on 23rd September 2014 and I am thankful to be associated with the ministry.

The transition from sports to being an Assistant Minister has been overwhelming. I believe I am associated with the right focus group as the ministry is mandated to propel Fijian youths through its non-formal education program and sports.

I am able to associate my story with those experienced by many youths eager to represent our country in individual sporting events.

I can easily relate to their struggle, hardship, aspirations and goals – their story may be different to mine, however the goal is usually the same. All youths want to succeed and they have a story to tell, all we need are good listeners.

Therefore, it becomes imperative to listen to everyone’s voices, which is inclusive of all individuals despite gender, religion or physical ability.

I am pleased to be associated with a Ministry where the voices of all youths are heard and efforts being made to empower and propel youths so they become the agents of change. This brings me to my next sub topic.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as people committed to sport in its widest form, as defined in the recently adopted Kazan Action Plan, we need to understand the context of human rights influencing sport.

The Revised International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport adopted by the UNESCO General Assembly in November 2015 makes clear that physical education, physical activity and sport is a fundamental right for all.

While we applaud this, we need to implement this across nations. In Fiji, we believe that this will help us greatly to address our non-communicable disease crisis.

We have people passing away in their 30s and 40s.

70% of those who pass away in Fiji have diseases categorized as NCDs.

We have an amputation every 3 hours or over 1,000 new amputees each year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the UN has progressively moved States Parties along the road of change and development. Conventions adopted and many of which have been ratified include:
• The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• The Convention on the Rights of a Child
• The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women
• The Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons
• The Convention against Corruption

We know that sport is not an end in itself but is often used as a means to an end – to supporting the elimination of discrimination against women and disabled people; to promoting social cohesion and inclusion; to ensuring our children have a solid foundation based on physical education.

We need to find ways to give meaning to these Conventions as individuals, groups, teams and societies.

It is my belief that sport and physical activity can contribute to the sustainable development agenda through the following specific goals:

• SDG 1 – no poverty by creating jobs
• SDG 2 – no hunger by creating jobs so people have money to put food on the table
• SDG 3 – good health – I hope this is self-explanatory
• SDG 4 – quality education by improving mental and physical health to study better, promote self confidence
• SDG 5 – gender equality by promoting sport for all
• SDG 8 – good jobs and economic growth as in Fiji, we earn a lot through remittances from our sportspeople overseas
• SDG 10 – reduced inequalities through better employment opportunities and promotion of an equal playing field through sport
• SDG 11 – sustainable cities and communities using the power of sport to unite us and creating sports facilities
• SDG 16 – peace and justice as we have only to look at the role sport plays in bringing people together in Palestine and Israel, among the groups in Rwanda
• SDG 17 – partnerships, or in sports language, teams

Even though sport, and physical activity, are only mentioned in the preamble, we can make a substantial contribution to the SDGs if we unite and move forward together.

For Governments to make their contribution, a national sports and physical activity policy provides a framework for enabling and monitoring organisations to do their work.

In Fiji, we have consulted a wide range of people and now have the first draft of our revised policy.

Early in 2018, we will send it out for consultation among sports stakeholders and those with a genuine interest. We may indeed have a mass meeting but it will be good to get broad input into the final draft.

We will then present it to Cabinet for approval.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have unfortunately seen too much corruption in a variety of forms in sport and it is important for us to unite to combat this.

We need to increase accountability and transparency in sport. Where public funds are used, we need to ensure that good governance prevails.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we may already be converts to the power of sport and physical activity. However, we need still to be activists to make others get active and healthy; to see what we see – that power to unite us all across all barriers real and imagined.

I look forward to a robust discussion on this important matter and wish to thank you and wish you a peaceful festive season.

Vinaka, Dhanyabaad, Shokran and thank you all.