18 Oct 2016

Africa women who attended the two day Africa Women in Sport conference have agreed in one voice  to resuscitate Africa Women In Sport Association (AWISA) which has been dormant.

AWISA was launched in 1998 after the Brighton conference in women in sport and its mandate is promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in sport

Since its formation the structure has been  functioning and therefore failing to meet its objectives and mandate.

However in 2014 Africa meeting resolved that it was imperative for Africa to have a functional women and sport structure, so as to help the region to articulate and advance their issues.

However since the 2014 meeting resolution nothing has been done, and therefore African women agreed that Botswana should host AWISA general assembly in 2017 to resuscitate the Africa women structure.

International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport chairperson Ruth Maphorisa said currently it was not clear as to who are the national executive members of AWISA, adding that even after 18 years of its existence still there were no annual general meetings held to update members about the progress of the structure, despite the fact that delegates were informed that there are countries subscribing to AWISA.

“When AWISA was formed definitely it was conceived that meetings should be held, and one needs to appreciate as to what the constitution says about holding the meetings, and who accounts for the contributions paid to AWISA if there are no annual meetings held to update members,” she said.

Furthermore, Maphorisa said according to the co-founder and secretary general of the African Women in Sports Association, Carol Garoes the structure was endorsed by governments adding that it was puzzling that none of the governments was willing to host AWISA meeting.

She said that was a clear indication that something was not right, adding that  AWISA was a technical committee of African Union.

“There is a disconnection that I don’t understand, AWISA is not able to reach out to members, meanwhile it is a member of AU, and my question is if AWISA is a member to the AU why is it that the structure is failing to use AU to reach out to its members,” she said.

She said Botswana made a commitment during a meeting in Finland that they will host an Africa Women in Sport conference, because the whole interest of IWG was to see to it that there was some kind of an organisation that can run women’s affairs now and beyond 2018.

“As IWG we are not interested in taking away from AWISA, but we are interested in making sure that our efforts are not in vain, there should be some kind of organisation to take over responsibilities of advocating for women in sport in Africa,” she said. 

Uganda, delegate Peninah Kabange said there was a need to have a way forward and suggested that as things stand in AWISA the general assembly was inevitable.

“I want to propose that during the Netball World Youth Cup 2017, we can hold our general assembly two or three days before the competition, that is my proposal,” she said.

South Africa delegate, Nomsa Mahlangu said it was a worrying factor that AWISA has not be able to deliver on its mandate, and at the same time those who are at the helm of the structure are unable to communicate.

She said it was long agreed that there should be a draft constitution that would be circulated to members so that AWISA can be resuscitated

“I seat here a very worried woman from Africa, because we have a structure that has not been able to deliver, colleagues let’s take AWISA out of ICU,”she said.

 Responding to some delegates concerns AWISA secretary general Carol Garoes, said AWISA consist of the seven zonal directors.

She said there were structures in every zone, with zone one being headed by Algeria, zone two is headed by Mali. Nigeria heads zone three, four is headed by Cameroon, while Uganda heads zone five, while zone six is headed by Zimbabwe. ENDS