FASANOC Welcomes IOC Strategies

9/18/20

Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC) welcomes the development of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) sustainable strategies as it commences work on its own Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2025.

The current strategic plan is from 2017 – 2021 and a strategic review is currently being undertaken to set the next platform through stakeholder consultations.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released its sustainability strategy with three 'spheres of responsibility'.

The guidelines – called “Sustainability Management in Sports” – will help National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs) integrate sustainability into their operations and events. Part of the IOC’s “Sustainability Essentials” series, the guidelines respond to the recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020 – the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement – which pledges to develop common methodologies and tools to help embed sustainability across all Olympic Movement operations.

The Strategy covers the IOC’s three spheres of responsibility:

• the IOC as an organisation;

• the IOC as owner of the Olympic Games; and

• the IOC as leader of the Olympic Movement.

It encompasses five focus areas:

• infrastructure and natural sites;

• sourcing and resource management;

• mobility;

• workforce; and

• climate.

“The global sports community has both a responsibility and opportunity to leave the world in better shape for future generations,” says IOC Director for Corporate and Sustainable Development, Marie Sallois. “We hope this guide will help sports organisations around the world take united and decisive action on sustainability.”

“Sustainability needs to become “business as usual” for any sports organisation, confirmed by solid commitment from leadership at the highest level. This means leaders need to go beyond simply delegating roles and responsibilities – they need to lead by example”said Sallois.FASANOC Chief Executive, Lorraine Mar said, this is timely as last week we covered a story on our efforts to address Gender Based Violence (GBV) in sports. Fiji with its focus on Cop23 is affected by climate change, economic inequality and social injustice.

FASANOC through its VOA Programme advocates strongly on  the messages of Be a Leader, Go Green, Play True, Play Safe and Stay Healthy,  through Athlete Champions who come from a variety of sports.”

The guide sets a logical pathway to enhanced sustainability within organisations, focusing on governance, engagement and transparency, while retaining flexibility for local circumstances such as culture, geography, and legal or economic contexts.

“A genuine approach to sustainability goes beyond ad hoc projects and support for good causes,” says Sallois.“ Lorraine said, Fiji being a sports loving country, has a huge potential to use sports as a tool to motivate and inspire our people. As a National Olympic Committee we are proud to support the IOC in its work towards global sustainability.

FASANOC is also very pleased that through sports, we are able to make a positive contribution towards the Fiji Governments National Development Plan and its adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). .

The IOC Sustainability Strategy was developed in the context of a landmark global initiative: the United Nations (UN)’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (and specifically the Sustainable Development Goals, widely known as the SDGs), which came into force on 1 January 2016.

Significantly, for its part, the UN General Assembly also confirmed the important role that sport plays in supporting the SDGs. Paragraph 37 of the UN 2030 Agenda states: “Sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development. We recognise the growing contribution of sport to the realisation of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities as well as to health, education and social inclusion objectives”.

A list of the UN SDG’s are listed in the picture above