2023-10-05 13:15:23
Promoting equality at all levels
Next summer, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be the first to offer perfect parity on the competition field. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded an equal number of qualifying places: 50% for women and 50% for men. The same principle of gender equality will be applied two years later during the first Olympic sporting event organized on the African continent: the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. These Youth Olympic Games were also discussed during the forum , with participants being invited to examine the impact and opportunities offered by this event organized in Africa, with the aim of encouraging more women and girls to engage in sport.
Outside of the competition area, the number of IOC members is tending more and more towards equality, with more than 40% women. Furthermore, 50% of positions within IOC commissions are occupied by women, a goal which was achieved in 2022. However, as the IOC is the first to recognize, there is still much to be done to establish equality between men and women throughout the Olympic Movement, particularly outside the competition area.
IOC
“Everyone has a role to play”
IOC President Thomas Bach addressed the forum via video message. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former executive director of UN Women and current chair of the IOC Human Rights Advisory Committee, and HRH Prince Faisal Al Hussein, IOC member, who is both chair of the IOC Human Rights Commission of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and Vice-President of the IOC Commission for Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, also delivered important speeches.
In his video message, President Thomas Bach welcomed the progress made by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), while emphasizing that the entire Olympic Movement must work together to reduce the gap between men and women in sport.
And to continue: “Only 26% of management positions within the NOCs (National Olympic Committees) are occupied by women. On the IF side [Fédérations Internationales], only four are headed by a woman and only eight have a woman as general secretary. This gap is also found among athletes’ entourages, where the number of women in leadership positions remains unacceptably low.”
“If we truly want to promote gender equality and empower women in sport, not only as athletes, but also as coaches, officials and managers, everyone has a role to play : IFs, NOCs, athletes and all other partners and stakeholders.”
Commitments to act
After two days of intense discussions, forum participants presented their “commitments to action” as a roadmap for working together towards equality between men and women in Africa. These commitments include a series of actions and measures to raise awareness of the need to ensure gender equality, from amateur sport to high-level sport:
Increase the participation of female athletes, from the amateur level to the highest level; Establish quotas for gender balance in governing bodies, with a minimum level of female representation of 30%, as indicated in the ANOCA statutes; Increase the skills and representation of women in all categories (i.e. members of the athletes’ entourage, administrators, etc.) from the amateur level to the highest level; Implement and disseminate the IOC Guidelines on representation in the media and to stakeholders in the world of sport; Define and take measures for the practice of sport in complete safety for all, in particular for groups at risk.
President Thomas Bach stressed the importance of these actions in efforts to advance gender equality. As he confided: “Gender equality does not happen by magic. To continue to make progress, we need thoughtful policies and institutional commitment. That is why I am very happy to see that ANOCA, through its Commission for Gender Equality, is taking decisive measures. By focusing on the promotion of sport in Africa at the level of the different zones, you demonstrate the importance of “a bottom-up approach, particularly when it comes to gender equality.”
IOC workshop on its protection programs
On the sidelines of the forum, the IOC also organized a workshop on its protection programs for NOCs. The workshop, organized as part of the IOC’s aim to help NOCs develop their own policies and programs to prevent harassment and abuse, focused on understanding the local challenges faced in terms of strengthening of practicing sport in complete safety and on the local solutions available in different areas of Africa.
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