In the western Kenyan village of Sauri, near Lake Victoria, the crops don’t fail, nearly all the children attend school, malaria is almost non-existent and medical care is free.

For when the sounds of the ‘vuvuzela’ start blurring across four South African cities, MDG campaigners will also stand up to make a point in order to be heard.

A few days ago, the clock chimed a 100 days left before the global curtain is raised on the first-ever World Cup on African soil and for a continent where the poverty situation has almost adorned a lifestyle status, the soccer balls that will be kicked around in Johannesburg’s Soccer City and other stadiums during the World Cup in South Africa will not be far-off from this sad reality.

The Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, met today with FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. They agreed to deepen cooperation between FIFA and the UN to further advocate for the role of sports as a effective tool for development and peace, in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ and the 2015 deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).