03 Sep 2020

Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) will hold their second women in sport Pitso on Saturday.

WASBO secretary general Keenese Katisenge said the Pitso was designed to present and discuss a broad range of women and sport matters in order to come up with resolutions for development and growth of women and girl child participation in sport.

“This year’s Pitso is even more significant as it comes at a time when the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which focuses on the global community’s commitment towards promoting and advancing equality was adopted in 1995.

As such, this makes the year 2020 an important year for the 25th anniversary of the Declaration and Platform for Action,” she added.

Therefore, she said the Pitso present a platform for sport and gender community to reflect on how Botswana had performed against commitments set out in the declaration and other treaties like the SADC Gender Protocol and  IWG Declarations.

According to Katisenge, Botswana Gender and Sport Strategy would be the major point of reference for the discussions and assessment of Botswana’s performance in relation to women sport.

The discussions, she said would also be centered around formulation of policies for development and growth of women and girl child participation in sport.

She said its aim was to capacitate and increase numbers of women in leadership positions, safeguard athletes in sport, set research-based approach and interventions in sport, women and sport as a national agenda.

Katisenge said the Pitso would give WASBO an opportunity to think, plan and act together as stakeholders championing gender equality in sport.

She said it was also built around high level interactive presentations and deliberations with leaders in sport, athletes, media, non-governmental organisations, corporates and community.

“Our target audience is all stakeholders in sport from Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Botswana National Sports Commission, Botswana National Olympic Committee, national sport associations, athletes, sponsors, media, parents and non- governmental organisations,” she said.  The Pitso will be held under the theme, Elevating Women and Girl Child Participation in Sport through Inclusive Policies. Ends