03 Jul 2014

Botswana will host the International Working Group (IWG) world conference on women and sport in 2018.

 Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) chairperson,  Solly Reikeletseng announced this during a press conference in Gaborone on July 2.

“This is the biggest and largest event that this country has ever hosted,” said Reikeletseng. He said the bar had been raised and the task would be delivered as promised in the bid document.

They will also receive a delegation from Finland on September 12 to 18, 2014 to officially do office hand over and guide on the set up, he said. “The secretariat will be hosted in Botswana from September 2014 to September 2018 in preparation for the conference,” he added.

Reikeletseng also announced the appointment of the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture, Ruth Maphorisa as the chairperson of IWG for four years.

He said the position was the biggest position in sport  to be held by a Motswana in the world stage adding that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dorcas Makgato-Malesu had been appointed the patron of IWG.

Reikeletseng urged Batswana to embrace the event and form partnerships with BNSC as they prepared to host the world. Botswana started the formal bid to host the conference last year through BNSC’s organ, Women and Sport in Botswana (WASBO).

Now that Botswana will host the IWG conference, Reikeletseng said the office for the project will be housed at the ministry effective September.

IWG women and sport is a network which its initiative is to change the pessimistic outlook that the larger society has towards women who have a colossal passion in sports. It is also meant to empower and persuade women to indulge themselves in sports as they may desire.

The IWG conferences on women and sport are milestone events which every four years focus global attention on specific goals and action steps aimed at offering men and women equal opportunities in the sport arena.

These conferences have been hosted in the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia and Finland. The Gaborone conference in 2018 will be the 7th and Botswana will be expecting over 150 countries from all over the world to participate. ENDS