Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus sees the Paris Olympics as a means to promote his social business agenda. Photo: Munir UZ ZAMAN / AFPSince the early days of Paris's bid for the 2024 Olympics, the city has been receiving advice from a prestigious counsel: Nobel peace prize winner and social
The 84-year-old admits to not even being a sports fan, but he agreed to come on board after accepting a dinner invitation from Paris's Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo in 2016 as she and her team were bidding to host the Games."I said to them the simplest thing you can do, before you make any decisions about allocating funds, is ask 'does this item have any social purpose?'" Yunus said.
By contrast, the Paris 2024 village is around 40 low-rise blocs on a brownfield site in one of the poorest parts of northern Paris, with new metro lines,Around a third of the 2,800 apartments are set to be converted into social housing once the Olympics and Paralympics wrap up in September.