Dakar 2026 youth olympic games: pioneering a plastic-free legacy

The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (JOJ) is making a bold commitment: to host an event entirely free from plastic pollution. This ambitious pledge comes through a collaborative effort between the Dakar 2026 organizing committee and the Ministry of Environment and Ecological Transition of Senegal, with crucial backing from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Several fundamental principles will guide the Youth Olympic Games, including a strong focus on minimizing single-use plastics, significantly improving waste sorting and collection processes across all venues, educating athletes, spectators, and local communities, and engaging institutions, the private sector, and civil society to build a lasting environmental legacy.

“Through this pioneering initiative, Dakar 2026 is poised to become a global benchmark for sustainable sporting events and will actively contribute to Senegal’s broader transition towards a circular plastics economy,” the COJOJ proudly affirmed. Fatou Leigh, interim Resident Representative for UNDP Senegal, elaborated on this vision: “We are not merely launching an environmental project. We are launching an aspiration: to make the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games a powerful demonstration that a major international event can indeed accelerate the shift towards a more responsible and sustainable circular economy.”

“The Youth Olympic Games present an extraordinary opportunity for our nation,” added Aliou Gory Diouf, the Minister of Environment and Ecological Transition. “We are determined to showcase Senegal’s capacity to host the first-ever Olympic event on the African continent, while simultaneously establishing an environmental legacy as impactful as the sporting one. Our ambition extends far beyond the duration of the Games. We aim for the responsible behaviors adopted during this occasion to become ingrained as a cultural norm across our society.”