The MOVE Congress 2017 in Birmingham, UK, from 4-6 October gathered stakeholders in grassroots sport and physical activity from six continents and countries as far and wide as New Zealand, Costa Rica, the US and Brazil.

From transforming the Birmingham Council House’s Banqueting Hall into a 5Rhythms “ISCA Disco” at the opening session, to presentations that got the participants thinking and sharing their views, to more dancing with a Bhangra and barn dance workshop at the networking dinner – the 8th MOVE Congress upheld its tradition as one of the most active conferences in the world.

It is, after all, our human right to MOVE. So there was no stopping us.

MOVING also means advocating for our cause

At the closing session on Friday 6 October, ISCA Secretary General Jacob Schouenborg led an open panel discussion together with ISCA North America Chair Jayne Greenberg, Pauline Harper from EPODE International and Rose-Marie Repond from EUPEA on the WHO’s recent draft of a Global Action Plan for Physical Activity.

So along with making physical moves to encourage others to get active, it is also important for the delegates to take political action and make strategic moves to get support for their work. And documents such as the WHO Global Action Plan should be embraced as powerful advocacy tools, he said.

“The action for me is first advocacy – action that will draw more political attention and resources to our sector,” Schouenborg said.

“We need to say that we know something needs to happen, here’s the solution, and with our help we can make it happen.”

Although Dr Greenberg said she could see promising steps towards a culture of “walking, biking and the use of active spaces”, all of the panellists agreed that there is still a lot to be done to facilitate active behaviours.

Stay tuned for news about the next MOVE Congress in 2019 – and in the meantime, what will you be working on to enable people to exercise their human right to MOVE?

See some of the highlights in our Facebook page photo albums