Prince Feisal has recommended that either the Chef de Mission or deputy Chef de Mission needed to be a female official, insisting it "makes sense".

The Jordan Olympic Committee President was speaking at the inaugural Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Gender Equity Seminar in Bahrain capital Manama.

"If you want to make a difference, can I recommend that if the Chef de Mission in the upcoming Asian Games or Olympic Games is a male then the deputy should be a female," said Prince Feisal, who is also an OCA Executive Board member.

"If you want to help and you are serious about this, there is nothing preventing you from doing that.

"We have a mixture of males and females in our delegations so I think it is a common sense that if the Chef de Mission is male, the deputy should be a woman.

"That’s an easy thing for you to do.

"We have a number of [multi-sport events] in Asia before Paris so if you need to train somebody you have that opportunity.

"I don’t want to go to Paris and see that they have both medals, we should be able to easily overcome that problem."

Nils Holmegaard, head of the IOC’s Olympic Values Unit, stressed the need for National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their Executive Board are women, saying it will "send an important message to the rest of the sporting movement that you are leading".

"Globally only one third of the NOCs today have 30 per cent women on their Executive Board," said Holmegaard.

"It’s difficult to change that in a short time but it is possible for your NOC leadership to decide that you want to lead by having 30 per cent women on your Executive Board.

"In Asia, only four NOCs have achieved this recommendation so we would love to continue working with you in this area.

"To do this, you need strong women and there are many in this room."

Two workshops were held on the opening day of the Gender Equity Seminar with delegates asked to discuss how NOCs can ensure and enforce women’s participation and representation in sports and what the best practices are to delivering that.

Among the recommendations made by the groups was to create a Women in Sport Commission at every NOC but Prince Feisal insisted increasing female representation on Executive Boards would be more effective.

"From what I have seen, is that they create a Women in Sport Commission, it is 100 per cent manned by women and the Board don't take any of the recommendations seriously," said Prince Feisal.

"I believe the 30 per cent gender equity should be in all commissions and you need to have somebody who can champion it at the Board level otherwise you are going to put a lot of effort and passion into something that is not going to materialise."

Maxwell de Silva, secretary general for the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka added: "We talk about this topic many times, so it's time to take action now.

"We need to ensure that there are 30 per cent female representation on our Boards.

"I want every single secretary general here to make that commitment and please do it.

"You need to do it in your own organisation, not blame the IOC or OCA and make excuses.

"It's time that we do it, it starts with you."