Our priorities are supporting and strengthening democracy, increasing awareness of climate change and building connections between Africa and the UK. In both South Africa and Zimbabwe we will extend our work with the young leaders of the future. We manage Peacekeeping English projects in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The British Council’s Dreams + Teams programme uses sport to engage, enrich and empower young people across Southern Africa. It supports International Inspiration, a new ground-breaking project that aims to implement the London 2012 bid’s promise to ‘reach young people all around the world and connect them to the inspirational power of the Games so they are inspired to choose sport’.

In this region, roughly 50 per cent of the population is aged under 15. Sport is an important way to connect with thousands of these young people – both male and female. Dreams + Teams Africa has partnered 150 schools in 19 African countries with 150 schools in the UK. In total 230,000 students and 23,000 teachers have been involved in the programme.

Young people in the UK and across Africa build their awareness of citizenship and develop leadership and other skills by organising sports festivals and other events and working on joint projects with their partner schools. By direct contact with pupils from a school in a different country we help increase young people’s intercultural and international understanding. At the same time teachers come together to share professional expertise.

Eighty-six per cent of young leaders and 90 per cent of teachers say their understanding of other cultures has been broadened as a result of their involvement with the programme. Ninety per cent of teachers believe Dreams + Teams has been effective in partnering positive social change between the UK and overseas.

The programme has been influential at a policy level too. In South Africa, Dreams + Teams has inspired the Department of Education and the Department of Sports and Recreation to produce a range of programmes using sport as a tool for curriculum development. In Mauritius, 28 young leaders organised a ‘festival of inclusion’ with 40 disabled children and 20 non-disabled children. This festival was so successful it will now take place annually.

The Dreams + Teams model of reaching young people through sport is set to create further impact across Africa as one of the main elements of International Inspiration. This is a new project, which aims to contribute to the realisation of the ‘Singapore Vision’ – the promise made by the London 2012 bid team to reach young people all around the world.

The British Council leads on the ‘PE and school links’ strand of the International Inspiration project. In 2007–08 British Council Zambia rolled out training events based on the Dreams + Teams model as part of a wide-ranging approach to skills and educational development through sport. Mozambique and South Africa are set to join phase two of International Inspiration. In total the programme will give 12 million young people life-changing access to sport by 2012.