The upcoming Women in Sports Symposium is expected to promote the participation of women in sports as visionary leaders and address some of the challenges they are facing.
This year’s event will be held on Saturday January 18 in Gaborone
Hosted after every two years by Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO), symposium will be held under the theme: Innovation and leadership models for women and girls’ participation in sports.
WASBO Chairperson Keenese Katisenge-Tizhani said in an interview that they will host two panel discussions which are meant to explore how visionary leadership can shape the future of women sports by driving transformative change. The first panel discussion will be held under the topic the role of men alliance in promoting women leaders while the second panel discussion will be on visionary leadership and future trends in women.
Tizhani noted that panellists will be drawn from different categories, that include national sport associations, athletes, media representatives, BNSC, African Women Sports Council and the sports ministry. She further stated that topics like digital transformation, innovation and inclusive leadership will be discussed to ensure they move with the times when it comes to how they address issues of women and girls’ participation.
‘‘We will also address modern challenges that women and girls are faced with as well as the traditional challenges. As we are moving with times and the world becoming modernised we want to ensure that the solutions that we come with are aligned to the issues of the current landscape in terms of global trends and perspectives,” she said.
According to Tizhani, the symposium has played a critical role in developing and empowering women in sports in Botswana since its inception in 2020, as it enabled them to implement different resolutions to address challenges facing women in Botswana.
She pointed out that since the inception of the symposium they have advocated for safeguarding of sport officials across different national sport associations. Tizhani said that through the symposiu, they have managed to resuscitate the eight regions countrywide that were not actively involved in sports. Tizhani said that the resuscitated regions have since been successful in hosting their AGM’s and are currently compliant in terms of regional leadership as per the constitution.
Meanwhile, Tizhani has indicated that the Women in Sports Symposium is a high level platform for discussions and resolutions with regards to women and girls participation in sport.
‘‘The Women in Sport Symposium is a solution geared platform where we are exploring mainly resolutions from a solutions perspective because there are challenges and issues that we are faced with. Those issues can only be addressed and mitigated if we come up with sustainable solutions as all stakeholders in creating a conducive environment for participation of women and girls in sports at all levels,’’ she said.
WASBO was formed in 1997 to increase women/girls participation and retention in sport.
