19 Oct 2014

The envisaged African women in sport conference, which was slated for November, has been put on hold due to the Ebola outbreak.

Addressing the 2018 International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport local organising committee, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Ruth Maphorisa said they were hoping that by next year the situation would have improved to allow convening of the conference. 

She said the November conference was important because they wanted to bring African women on board, given that in all IWG conferences and deliberations, Africa had been lagging behind.

“It is our view that we need to pick up and bring others on board as we prepare for the big conference,” she said. Maphorisa said the success or failure of the 2018 conference rests on the local organising committee (LOC) and that she has no doubt they would make it.

She said the main objective of meeting with the LOC was to provide a platform for a deeper understanding of the assignment of hosting the conference, adding that the other objective was to give the committee a platform to prepare for a successful conference.

The conference, she said, was not an event but a process. She said what transpires during the conference would be determined by the preparations.

 “We want to say what we have achieved and the impact that we have made,” said Ms Maphorisa.

Maphorisa, who is also the 2014-2018 IWG chairperson, said there was a reason that they wanted the conference to be hosted by Botswana, adding that there was an agenda behind that has to come out clearly.

She said the conference comes at a time when a lot of things surrounding developments were happening such as the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which carries with it issues around development of women and was coming to an end.

The United Nations, she said talks about sustainable development.  “What is this sustainable development in terms of sport, what MDGs have we achieved and what is that we want to see post 2015,” she said.

For her part, the IWG 2014-2018 secretary, Game Mothibi said the Brighton Declaration on women and sport was meant to balance all sporting, local, national and international charter laws, codes, rules and regulations relating to women or sport.

She said as the 2018 host, at the end of the four year term, they would be asked how many organisations in Botswana have signed the declaration, adding that it was important for all sport organisations to sign. ENDS