MIES - A special guest was in attendance at FIBA's House of Basketball on Monday, in the shape of Wilfried Lemke, the Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Also a much heralded Ambassador for Peace and Sport, Lemke took the chance to visit FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Baumann the day before joining Mr Ban for a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach that will aim at strengthening cooperation between the two organisations.

"I am a close friend of Patrick (Baumann) and I promised that one day when I was nearby, I would visit the new building as I had only ever been to the old one," explained Lemke. "It is very modern and state of the art, as well as being very stylish.

"FIBA are very well connected and I am trying to organise further co-operation to see if FIBA can maybe attend one of our UN youth leadership camps which we set up in 2012 and have seen young people attend from over 50 different countries.

"I am sure FIBA could show how basketball can be used to promote peace.

"Basketball is one of most famous sports all over world and I think there are wonderful role models such as Dirk Nowitzki.

"I will always remember the way that this multi-millionaire player cried with joy when he qualified for the (2008 Beijing) Olympics with Germany and what it meant to him - kids can really look up to that as he showed how much sport matters."

Lemke certainly has a very important role to carry out in making sure sport plays a big part in development across the world and he took time out to explain more about his pivotal role.

"The UN mandate I have means I must be the representative in the worldwide field of sport," he said.

"Secondly I need to be a facilitator for when there are both conflicts and positive situations which need input.

"I also have to be an advocate since many leaders of the UN member states think sport is a luxury and our opinion is very different.

"We think you have to start with sport and must have mandatory school lessons with physical education as an element.

"Part of my role is to convince heads of states and ministers of education to love sport."

Lemke was also keen to stress the importance of the continual progress being made between the UN and the IOC - something which he feels is going from strength to strength.

"When I started seven years ago, there was not such a close relationship with the IOC, but they now even have observer status at the UN which is a big sensation," he pointed out.

"We now have annual meetings and we also have the UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

"We still know this can be better in future and we are pushing all federations to be involved as it is not for elite superstars, but is a real tool for education and development.

"As for my role as Ambassador for Peace and Sport, it is very much around similar goals.

"It is working to use sport so we can unite people, bring them together and protect them."

The inaugural UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace was held on 6 April of this year to great acclaim and is expected to become even more of a success in the future.

FIBA