The GAMES project has reached its halfway point ©Twitter

The European Olympic Committees (EOC) has celebrated the halfway point of the Guidance to Achieve More Equal Leadership in Sport (GAMES) project.

It aims to promote structural and cultural changes regarding gender equality in leadership and decision-making positions among National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and their member federations.

The initiative lasts for two years and is co-funded by the European Commission's Erasmus+ Sport Programme. 

The NOCs involved are Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, North Macedonia and Turkey.

A total of four "deliverables" have been developed in the 12 months since the beginning of the project.

A questionnaire has reviewed gender equality and enquired on organisational structure, current policies and procedures for gender equality and representation.

It gathered a response rate of 89 per cent from 110 national federations (NFs) across the eight countries.

The State of Arts Report then provided an analysis of the questionnaire in terms of female representation at leadership level.

It showed that just 25 per cent of NOCs and 42 per cent of NFs surveyed had a gender equality or diversity and inclusion strategy.

As a result, the GAMES consortium is working on a "pool of actions" and the National Action Plans.

The latter is set to be a strategic document approved by the NOCs' leadership, which includes visions and actions to reach set objectives to improve gender equality within a set timeframe.

The pool of actions is due to be a manual of actions taken to strengthen gender equality while considering an organisation's readiness levels.

It is claimed to be inline with the International Olympic Committee's Gender Equality and Inclusion Strategic Framework 2021-2024 and the European Union Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025.

"Moving forward, the GAMES project consortium is going to further discuss the Pool of Actions and NOCs National Action Plans during the GAMES mid-term (hybrid) conference scheduled on May 23, 2023 in Athens," read an EOC statement.

"After which, the Pool of Actions and NOCs National Action Plans are foreseen to be presented by each partner NOCs during the National Launching Event scheduled between April 2023 and December 2023."