News article
IOC and UN Women extend gender equality collaboration
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and UN Women have renewed a partnership focusing on using sport to promote gender equality.
The new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was signed by IOC President Thomas Bach and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous during a meeting in New York, extends a collaboration that was first struck in 2012.
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
“Sport has the potential to transform lives, and the extension of our partnership with UN Women will help us to ensure that all women and girls have the opportunity to benefit from this unique power of sport. With this new MoU, we will enhance our ongoing initiatives to encourage sports participation among girls and advance towards gender equality.”
The two parties have already established tangible outcomes to be delivered over the next two years, with three main objectives outlined.
The IOC and UN Women will promote gender-responsive policies, governance and investment; promote safe and equal opportunities for women and girls to benefit from sport; and strengthen advocacy, communication, collaborative insight-generation and knowledge-sharing.
The MoU is accompanied by a two-year General Plan of Activities that will support the delivery of the IOC’s gender equality priorities, which are set out in its Gender Equality and Inclusion Objectives for 2021 to 2024, as well as the implementation of the Olympism365 strategy, which strengthens the role of sport as an enabler for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“Sport is an unrivalled asset to help us to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, and to ensure women’s full and equal participation in leadership and decision-making. There can be no higher goal, and no greater win for us all, and we are honoured to be renewing our partnership with the IOC to work towards this target together.”