16 Mar 2015

The International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport official says Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) has to align their strategies to IWG.

Boitumelo Kenosi said in an interview on the sidelines of a strategy planning meeting in Mokolodi on March 14 that such alignment would enable WASBO benefit immensely from IWG as a more established entity.

Kenosi, the IWG marketing and public relations manager, said their organisation was continuously benchmarking best practices, working with five regions of Africa, Oceania, America Caribbean, Asia and Europe. Botswana would host IWG conference in 2018.

Kenosi said having the IWG secretariat locally, was an opportunity that WASBO should not miss, thus encouraging them to tap into as IWG was resourced. 

She added that it was important for WASBO to align their strategy with the Brighton Plus Helsinki and Beijing Declaration as they both addressed issues concerning women.  “WASBO should look into ways to ride on this platform as it has potential to advance their wishes,” she said.

She said presently WASBO and IWG should intensify their working relations and ensure that WASBO fitted into IWG strategy and trickle it down as such would enable them to learn from other countries and improve the standard of women in the country. 

Kenosi said WASBO should ensure that IWG strategies assisted them to support local strategies as IWG believed in equity and facilities to help women benefit from sport. 

She said IWG aimed to leave a legacy through the policies they intended to put in place, saying with such in place, it wouldbe see more women participation in sport.  Further, she said that would be a breakthrough for not only WASBO but also future female athletes. 

WASBO spokesperson, Dr Keba Hulela said they were working round the clock to ensure that they benefitted from the IWG. Dr Hule said although they had a number of impending activities and were yet to carry some research that would guide them as to what to do if they were to realise results. 

Again, she said hosting the IWG indicated that Botswana was part of the global village and should look into ways of exploring opportunities offered by hosting the conference.  She said all industries would benefit both socially and economically and encouraged girls and women should be in the fore to learn from their counterparts. 

Further, she indicated that some of the girls and women would be involved in various activities as well as making presentations.  She also noted that they wanted to see more girls and women participating freely in sport.

However, she expressed concern that women quit sport early due to several reasons which did not affect their male counterparts.  She indicated that women, like their male counterparts, should participate freely without disturbance and should be afforded the same support afforded to the boys. 

Nonetheless, she said they were confident that IWG would leave a legacy that would impact positively on girls and women in sport.  She said with policies in place, they would certainly achieve their aims given that as WASBO, they continued to advocate for women empowerment, participation, employment and involvement in sport.  ENDS