World Active: Uniting the Global Fitness and Physical Activity Sector

World Active, a newly established global fitness and physical activity sector federation, has officially launched. I see its primary organisational purpose as providing powerful representation, advocacy, and support.

Several key reasons have been identified for launching this new organisation:

1 The need for closer and more effective collaboration and knowledge-sharing among national activity-promoting associations on six continents. This statement from the World Active website articulates the rationale for creating a new organisation:

“National and continental trade associations, as well as professional registers, from across the world, have all identified the need to establish a worldwide forum to start collaborating more closely. Therefore, they decided to come together within World Active, to look at ways to share, collaborate, and support each other in their efforts to serve the fitness and physical activity sector, in its recovery and future growth. Maximising lessons learned and opportunities identified as a consequence of the pandemic, World Active aims to establish a singular international voice for the industry and enhance collaboration with the World Health Organisation.”

2 The need for a unified and effective voice when collaborating with influential entities, such as the World Health Organization.

3 An organisation must represent all providers – public, private, and voluntary – across all continents, with Africa currently being highlighted as the often ‘forgotten continent.’

4 To position the sector as a crucial contributor to improving global public health.

I’ve created an image encapsulating World Active’s organisational purpose, vision, mission, and long-term impact. Please note that the ‘purpose’ and ‘impact’ statements represent my interpretation.

Please do share your thoughts on this new federation’s potential to make a positive difference.