The Yunus Centre was founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Today a dedicated centre in Paris was opened to help build social business in the city and bring international attention to the project.

The Yunus Centre strives to engage individuals and organisations in creating, promoting and maintaining social business by spreading the concept through workshops, internships and projects.

"I am thrilled to launch the new Yunus Centre in this magnificent global city of Paris," said Professor Yunus.

"I am confident that our new facility will help social business to take root in Paris, and spread across Europe and around the world.

"Involvement of Paris in social business will give out strong message that we can use our creative capacity to bring poverty, unemployment, and net carbon emission to zero.”

Through the agreement, Paris 2024 has committed to using the bid and the delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as "a tool for the promotion of social business in the Paris area and beyond, to help improve the quality of life of citizens, increase social inclusion and support sustainable and equitable development."

One of the initiatives the bid is aiming to implement is a joint social business programme with the French National Olympic Committee and the French Olympians Association dedicated to career change for high level athletes after their sporting career.

They are also aiming to support and assist young people from local communities to ensure that they fully benefit from the 250,000 jobs potentially created by the Paris 2024 Games.

A volunteer programme for the Olympic and Paralympic Games combined with a training programme leading to Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning is also planned.

The agreement will take effect from today and will be fully operational when the Host City of the 2024 Games is selected.

“We are delighted to sign this partnership agreement with the City of Paris and the Yunus Centre to take action in the field of social innovation and the sustainable development of cities," added Paris 2024 Chief Executive Officer Etienne Thobois.

"Sport and the organisation of sports events has a unique power to promote peace and social and economic inclusiveness and by setting out clear objectives in this area we are committed to creating a genuine legacy with real benefits for the people of Paris and France.”

Two other candidates will battle Paris for the right to host the Olympics and Paralympics in eight years’ time - Budapest and Los Angeles.

The International Olympic Committee is due to elect the host city for 2024 at its Session in Lima on September 13 next year.