Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) over the weekend staged an ordinary General meeting (OGM) to review its 2017 -2021 strategy and to develop a new one for the next four years.
The new strategy is expected to give WASBO some clear and measurable targets that will guide it in the delivery of its mandate. Secretary General of WASBO Keenese Katisenge-Tizhani said the organisation intends to aggressively work towards meeting its undertakings.
“We are going to capacitate regional leaders so that structures are active and leaders are able to drive the strategy and WASBO’s objectives to eliminate issues of inequality. The executive committee of WASBO is working around the clock to come up with initiatives that will keep our structures active,” explained Katisenge-Tizhani.
The WASBO secretary general further observed that the other obstacle hampering their obligations is lack of funds. “We have agreed to come up with ideas of becoming self sustainable and move from depending on ministry of sport and Botswana National Sport Commission for funding,” she revealed.
Katisenge-Tizhani said while input from the OGM is yet to be reviewed and top priorities be picked from it, some of the contributions included involve lobbying the Ministry of Sports, Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and National Sport Associations to enforce principles and requirements of the gender mainstreaming strategy.
Other calls included for WASBO to come up with a Resource Mobilization Strategy, which will lead to WASBO reducing dependency on Government.
“The other major call was for WASBO to ensure that the just finalised Sexual Harassment Policy which aims at ensuring an environment free of sexual harassment in sport is signed by National Sport Associations as they commit to its principles,” Katisenge-Tizhani explained.
On the other issues, the WASBO Secretary General said the weekend’s OGM boasted a good attendance from various sporting associations, something she believes bodes well for the organisation.
“The mandate of WASBO is now appreciated by the sporting federations which is a clear sign that they are ready to join hands and help it realise its mandate,” Katisenge-Tizhani observed. She said since there is goodwill from the sports federations, they will work even harder to make sure the issues that bother WASBO are eradicated from Sport.
In 2020 WASBO reviewed its constitution to recognise Women’s Commissions and National Sport Associations as key stakeholders to the delivery of WASBO mandate.
The WASBO Regions will be supported with empowerment initiatives and capacity building to ensure that they are better able to advance WASBO mandate. The Strategy is also going to be cascaded down to the National Sport Associations.
Participants at the OGM also agreed to National Sport Associations Strategies being aligned to the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy to ensure advancement of WASBO Mandate and collaboration.
