16 Oct 2017

The World Baseball/Softball Confederation(WBSC), second congress which was held in Gaborone recently came in handy for the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG) as more countries signed the Brighton Plus Helsinki Declaration on Women and Sport.

The signing of the declaration started immediately after the first IWG World Conference held in 1994 in Brighton, UK. The Brighton Declaration came about as legacy for first IWG World Conference and as Brighton legacy.

From 1994- 2014 international and national sport organisations, women and sport movements signed the Brighton Declaration. After 2014, when IWG turned 20 years and as Helsinki legacy, the declaration was updated from Brighton Declaration to Brighton Plus Helsinki Declaration on Women and Sport.

United States of America softball representative, Craig Cress said in an interview, immediately after signing the declaration that women in sport had always been extremely important to what they do in his country.

Cress, who is also Softball division board of directors’ second vice president, said they had more women participating in their sport, adding that any initiative to support women in sport was important in USA.

President of Softball South Africa, Mashilo Matsetela said his signing of a declaration meant that as a country they had to treat women the same way as men in sport, when they dealt with issues of management and leadership.

Matsetela, who is also softball division board of directors’ vice president Africa said it was also of paramount importance to deal with issues of inclusion, diversity and make sure that there was a gender balance, adding that as a country that should always remain in their agenda.

“We must always talk about issues of leadership and in my opinion, I think women must be given opportunities, but issues like capacity and ability to deliver will always come to play. I am happy to tell you that in my federation we have achieved the 50/50 quota,” he said.

IWG secretary general, Game Mothibi said in an interview that Botswana took over from Helsinki in 2014 and with updated declaration.

She said Botswana became the first host to sign organisations to the updated Brighton Plus Helsinki.

She said they took over from Helsinki with 419 signatories which had all signed to Brighton Declaration since 1994.

“We really believe in this declaration as IWG, as the host and we gave ourselves a target of 200 more signatories to make it 619. This was an ambitious target looking at the fact that five hosts all of them signed 419. We signed different organisations from all over the world including FIFA, Tanzania Sport Council, Botswana Netball Association, just to name a few,” she said.

Mothibi said they went to the WBSC Congress which was held in Gaborone with 497 signatories and they managed to sign WBSC and Africa Baseball and Softball Confederation as well as 81 more national baseball and softball federations from different countries.

“This brings us to 580 signatories with only 39 away from the target, and we are happy and thankful to Botswana Softball for introducing us to WBSC and making this possible and we are happy that the response was good.

All signatories were signing and also engaging and interested in knowing what to do when they got back to their respective countries,” she said.

She however said they were very optimistic that they would reach their target given that they had reached out to Botswana National Sport Commission to consider mass signing of different sport associations at BNSC annual general meeting penciled for November 2017.

She said reaching their target would put Botswana in good position, as the host of the 7th IWG World Conference to be held in the country next year. ENDS