Participants in the recently concluded Africa and Asia Women Sports Leadership Forum, made strong recommendations aimed at breaking down the barriers facing women in sports—the forum concluded on Friday at Kigali Convention Center.

Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in partnership with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), the three-day event that ran from 9-11 August was attended by 251 participants from 71 countries.

Basing on the commitment to "pro-active action” by the participants in the first Afro-Asia Forum on Women in Sport, which took place in Kuwait in 2013, the delegates in Kigali noted that, despite the constant efforts to increase the number of women in governing bodies, inequalities between women and men still exist.

The participants pointed out that, in Africa and Asia at Executive Board level, 9 NOC’s have achieved the 30% representation target as of 2017, 7 are above 20% and 47 are yet to meet the target (between 0 and 20%).

In General Assemblies, 8 NOC’s have achieved the 30% representation target as of 2017, 9 are above 20% and 45 are yet to meet the target (between 0 and 20%);

They further noted that, at the current pace it will take several years to achieve gender equality in all aspects of world sport.

Participants declared that changes will only be possible if men and women join efforts to eradicate all barriers that are still hindering women from fully enjoying sports at all levels.

The Forum also recommended that all sports organizations adapt/develop a clear strategy to promote gender equality all levels of sport by 2018.

In the action plan, it was agreed that the: IOC, ANOC, ANOCA, National Olympic Committee’s and International Federations should promote gender equality as a good governance principle and put in place special measures to ensure electoral processes that allow for diverse representation.

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