Luxembourg played host to two high-profile events focussed on advancing gender equality in sport across Europe last week, with the European Summit on Gender Equality and Diversity in Sport taking place on 12 February, ahead of the closing event of the ‘All In Plus’ EU-CoE joint project on 13 February.
Organised by the European Sports NGO Equality Within Sport (ENGSO EWS) Committee, the second edition of the European Summit on Gender Equality and Diversity once again brought together stakeholders from across 11 organisations to exchange insights, align efforts and strengthen the impact of gender equality and diversity initiatives in sport.
Each stakeholder representative updated on their achievements from the past year, as well as their on-going areas of focus. The group then worked together to identify the challenges and gaps which needed to be addressed to improve collective impact
and updating a shared calendar to help with a co-ordination of actions for the coming year and beyond.
As well ENGSO EWS and IWG, Council of Europe, UNESCO, European Olympic Committee, European Paralympic Committee, European University Sports Association, International Federation for Sports Officials, Global Observatory for Gender Equality and Sport, European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation and the Alice Milliat Foundation were also in attendance.
The following day saw IWG participate in the closing event of the ‘All In Plus’ project, which took place at the National Sports and Culture Centre Coque in Luxembourg. The conference included the launch of a new analytical report which provides a
comprehensive analysis of gender equality in sport across Europe, highlighting both the progress and the consistent disparities across the 21 countries involved in the joint project.
As part of the conference, Abby Burton, Head of Strategic Communications for IWG, joined a panel discussion with colleagues from UNESCO, International Olympic Committee, The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Global Observatory to discuss the global perspective of gender equality indicators. This provided an opportunity to update the audience, which included national coordinators from the 21 countries, athletes, journalists and the Council of Europe’s key stakeholders, on the work of the IWG.
The conference agenda also included interviews and panel discussions with athletes and media on their experiences of gender equality in sport, as well as informative sessions on the ‘All In Plus’ analytical report itself.
The session closed with a speech from Georges Mischo, the Luxembourgish Minister in charge of Sport who concluded that: “Gender equality in sport is not just a goal, but a fundamental right that we must tirelessly work towards.”
Reflecting on the trip, Abby said: “It’s been a useful and important couple of days representing IWG at these two high-level European events focussing on advancing gender equality”.
“The European summit provided an ideal forum to bring together the stakeholders from across the continent to share updates and ideas and to have the time to discuss further collaboration opportunities. This was the second year of the summit, and it was a good chance to meet new colleagues and to hear about the work which has happened since we met last.”
“The closing event of the ‘All In Plus’ EU-CoE joint project was insightful, particularly hearing from the national co-ordinators involved in the project. It was a privilege to join the panel discussion on the global perspective of gender equality indicators and
helping to highlight the importance of a homogenous set of metrics against which to measure gender equality in order to push the movement forwards at a faster rate”
“The IWG’s role is to now spotlight the analytical report alongside the individual country’s factsheets so that more continents within our network can not only learn from the findings, but also look at the approach and the methodology used by the EU and COE to produce such a comprehensive analysis.”
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