Kuwait City, Kuwait, March 12, 2024: The Olympic Council of Asia’s Gender Equity Committee will continue to strive for equal representation for the 20th Asian Games in Japan in 2026.
At a recent meeting of the OCA Gender Equity Committee, Chair Sheikha Hayat Bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa noted the low representation of female coaches and referees at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China last September-October.
“Our aim is to implement the strategy to increase the number of females on all levels. A continuous effort is required from all of us,” Sheikha Hayat said.
“Ongoing data collection is very important to evaluate and monitor the situation. Our aim is to further close the gap in the next Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. We expect each National Olympic Committee to have a strategy in place.
“By the end of April, we will be having one-on-one meetings with each specific point of contact to follow up on their progress.”
Earlier in the meeting, OCA Gender Equity and Safeguarding Manager Mrs. Sabine Fakhouri stressed the importance of data collection and appointing a Specific Point of Contact within NOCs.
“In January 2023, right after the Gender Equity Seminar held in Bahrain, we started ongoing data collection in coordination with all NOCs,” said Mrs. Fakhouri.
“First, a Specific Point of Contact (SPOC) was appointed for each NOC. We urge any NOC with no SPOC for Gender Equity to appoint one to facilitate communication and data collection.”
Mrs. Fakhouri then presented data from the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou last year: two flagbearers, a female and male athlete, increased the visibility of female athletes; of the 482 events, 229 were for men, 217 for women and 36 were mixed events; five out of 45 Chefs de Mission were women; 41.3 per cent of the athletes were female; 16.1 per cent of team officials were women; 29.4 per cent of technical officials were women.
Mrs. Fakhouri concluded by stating that a detailed gender equity data collection from Hangzhou 2022 would be published soon after running the one-on-one meetings with all NOCs as part of the OCA Gender Equity action plan.
The OCA Gender Equity Committee meeting was held with 17 participants and took place on March 7 – one day before International Women’s Day.
In a video message, OCA Deputy Director General Vinod Kumar Tiwari said the OCA regarded the Gender Equity Committee as one of the most important and influential groups.
Therefore, as per the suggestion of Sheikha Hayat, the OCA will be including one member from the Gender Equity Committee in the OCA Coordination Committee for the next Asian Games in Japan.
Sheikha Hayat urged all NOCs to benefit from the OCA’s Social Development Through Olympism and Education programme and outlined the action plan for 2024. This included one-on-one meetings with the Gender Equity Specific Point of Contact to share data collection from Hangzhou 2022, starting in April 2024; and to discuss NOC plans to enhance gender equity for the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand in November 2024.
There are also plans to host a Gender Equity Seminar at the end of 2024/early 2025.