Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO, discusses how UNESCO is using sport to tackle three intersecting global challenges worsened by COVID-19: physical inactivity, mental health issues and inequality. UNESCO’s new sport initiative Fit for Life is framed as a solution to driving outcomes in health, education and equality. Offering stakeholders a joined-up implementation framework with concrete pathways to deliver smart investments in sport that create impact across sectors, Fit for Life aims at triggering systems-based and behaviourial change to “build back better”.