Sport is a global industry that the Pacific Islands can stake strategic claims in, for economic, social, and cultural development, but good governance is key to sport organisations contributing to achieve this for sportspeople and economies.
The Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) say this is not new knowledge but that its current Secretaries-General Workshop is emerging this as a core issue to be targeted in the new Olympic quadrennium from 2021 to 2024.
ONOC shared the goal is to get all member National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to use the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) tool, the Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance (BPGG) to assess past performance and create strategic plans for the new cycle of Olympic Solidarity Funding.
ONOC said, “Pacific Island member NOCs have access to a wide range of funding support within the Olympic Solidarity Programme and most need strengthening in governance and management to benefit from these.”
“To date, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSMOC) has managed to use most of the grants provided for the benefit of athletes and national federations.”
“The Olympic Solidarity Programme provides support to all NOCs through World Programmes which NOCs access directly, and through Continental Programmes which they access via us at ONOC because we’re a Continental Association.”
ONOC said, “The same good governance tools and mechanisms that NOCs use as criteria when supporting national federations are used by ONOC and Olympic Solidarity to provide grants and support to them as NOCs – so the requirements for good governance run through the sporting system.
“To access the suite of grants under Olympic Solidarity programmes, NOCs need to show evidence of minutes of annual meetings, financial audits, current strategic plans, annual reporting, and other items by way of policies.
“In this regard, it is important for national federations and athletes to play an active role in the administration and management of sport at national level and ONOC is supporting NOCs with information sharing through website development, IT, and social media support to ensure engagement with stakeholders.”
ONOC further said, “All our members are keen on accessing the full suite of Olympic Solidarity funding and are committed to addressing gaps in reasonable phases which ONOC is pleased to support in this quadrennium.
“Good governance is important for building credibility and trust and we are pleased to listen to our members as to what their challenges are and to assist with working with them to ensure athletes benefit in our region.”
ONOC shared that its services to NOCs include sport education, administration and human resources, compliance, information technology, reporting, management, governance, communications, and financial services.
ONOC has seventeen NOC Members and 6 Associate Members. The Olympic Solidarity Programme of funding is accessed from IOC and distributed to ONOC members based on standard requirements linked to good governance. NOCs members constitute national sporting federations, who in turn are made up of clubs at community level.
ONOC said, “While we already support NOCs with grants, they still have many doors to open in terms of opportunities and this will be our focus in this Olympic cycle….
SOURCE: ONOC MEDIA/PACNEWS
