Dr Ben Sanders is the Executive Director of the International Platform on Sport and Development (sportanddev). He leads the operating team and accounts to the Steering Board with a mandate to sustain, strengthen and scale the reach and impact of sportanddev.He is also Course Director for the massive open online course (MOOC) on Sport for Sustainable Development, developed with the Commonwealth Secretariat and Australian government, which has attracted over 8,500 learners from 197 countries and counting. Ben has extensive practical and theoretical experience, including working with the United Nations, Commonwealth, FIFA, Laureus and many others, in designing, delivering and evaluating policies and programmes that use sport to achieve development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He completed the first PhD (doctorate) by publication in Sport for Sustainable Development in Africa at the University of the Western Cape in 2017 and has published academically and presented widely. He has extensive management, strategy and leadership experience in the non-profit sector, public sector and international development cooperation and is proudly South African.Ben is also a Research Associate at the UNESCO Chair for Sport, Development, Peace and Olympic Education, the first of its kind in Africa, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Chair on Sport for Development, Peace and Environment.