Source: AFP
Since the early days of Paris’ bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, the city has been receiving advice from a famous adviser: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and social enterprise guru Mohamed Yunus.
Yunus has pioneered microcredit in his native Bangladesh since the 1970s, helping lift millions of people out of poverty by providing small loans to merchants to help them start businesses.
His role in Paris as a consultant and ambassador for socially responsible business is a departure from his usual work — and all the more surprising given the Olympics’ reputation for embracing big projects and corporate sponsors.
The 84-year-old admits he wasn’t even a sports fan, but agreed to come on board after accepting a dinner invitation from Socialist Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in 2016 as she and her team were bidding to host the Games.
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“I told them the simplest thing you can do, before you make any decisions about allocating funds, is to ask, ‘does this item have a social purpose?'” Yunus said.
“If it is not done, not a penny should be allocated,” he added.
He says he quickly saw an opportunity to use the power of the Olympics to spread his message about the importance of adopting new ways of doing business, focusing on solving humanity’s problems rather than making a profit.
“The moment Paris does something, it becomes a global concern,” he said. “There’s public awareness of Paris, the respect they have, their history and how they’re known for their creativity.”
A different village
Yunus says his ideas fell on fertile ground in the mayor’s office and the organizing committee, with the city’s vision for the 33rd Summer Games being a lower-budget and environmental impact event compared to previous editions.
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Only two news sports venues have been built, apart from the athletes’ village.
Source: AFP
Having visited the village built for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — a high-rise complex outside the city with poor transport links — Yunus knew the pitfalls.
“I saw all these tall buildings, one after the other, and I thought, ‘This is not the right way to do it,'” he said.
By contrast, the Paris 2024 village is about 40 low-rise blocks in an area in one of the poorest areas of northern Paris, with new metro lines, schools and parks all part of the redevelopment plan.
Around a third of the 2,800 flats are set to be converted into social housing once the Olympic and Paralympic Games are over in September.
Yunus also urged organizers to consider adding “social enterprises will be prioritized” to their public tenders for services such as catering.
“All the big companies that are used to winning these competitions are reading this line and talking to each other and asking: What is a social enterprise? Are we one? Will we be prioritized?” he said.
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“And the smart CEO will say, ‘OK, since we’re not a social enterprise, why don’t we have a partnership with one?’. So at least you’re bringing them into the picture.”
Corporate dominance
Ultimately, the catering contract to provide 40,000 meals a day was won by Sodexo, a listed French multinational with annual sales of more than 12 billion euros ($13 billion).
Elsewhere, the usual roster of global blue-chip sponsors will use the Games for promotional purposes, from Japanese carmaker Toyota and global steelmaker ArcelorMittal to French luxury empire LVMH.
Most of the construction work was carried out by France’s largest construction companies — Bouygues Construction, Eiffage and Vinci.
However, on the fringes, a desire to use the Games to nurture socially minded small companies can be seen, even if they have only benefited from a fraction of the nearly €9 billion budget.
A Paris-based plastics recycling business called Le Pave won a contract to provide 11,000 seats in new Olympic venues, one of around 500 “social enterprises” to win tenders.
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Others included a business that turns construction waste into topsoil, which was used in the athletes’ village. Laundry services will be provided there by a consortium of nine small local entrepreneurs.
On Games sites, contractors also had to use long-term unemployed for at least 10 percent of their workforce.
Yunus does not seek credit for any of these initiatives, but is convinced that by putting his ideas and reputation at the service of the Games, he is helping to encourage change.
It has begun advising Milan-Cortina, the Italian host of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“They whisper in my ears, ‘we want to do better than Paris,'” he said.
Source: AFP