Promoting equality for women in sport - a weekend in Belgrade

Helen Tan, the Alliance's Development Officer, blogs about her latest trip...

As part of my job I get to travel to some interesting cities and last weekend was no exception, Belgrade is a lovely city, helped by the 30 degree heat, and very unspoilt.  On Friday and Saturday the Steering Group of European Women and Sport (EWS) met in Belgrade to discuss, amongst other things, plans for our forthcoming conference in London - EWS2011.  

I have been lucky enough to be the Secretary General for this group since September 2009, and to work with a group of hugely talented, motivated and dynamic women from across Europe. The group consists of representatives from France, Sweden, Romania, Serbia, Germany, the International Paralympic Committee and ENGSO, and is chaired by Amanda Bennett from UK Sport. EWS exists to promote the equality of women in sport across Europe and to share information and best practice between countries. 

As always at these meetings the hospitality is overwhelming, and the Serbian Sports Association was very generous with its time and efforts to support the group.  The meetings travel around steering group members countries, to promote women’s equality in the country and the role of EWS.  The Belgrade meeting saw representatives from the Minister for Sport address us and talk about their work on gender equality, alongside Olympians in gymnastics and athletics.   We even managed to get a photo and article about the meeting in the national newspaper!! (warning, unless you can read the Cyrillic alphabet you may have trouble understanding it…)    

The content of the meeting was dominated by plans for the conference and discussions on the speakers  confirmed so far. They are all pretty impressive, including the EU Sports Minister.  We also spoke about forthcoming potential bids to Europe for funding for European-wide governance work and a cross-Europe exchange programme for NGB staff members.  The group have a wide range of contacts and these are invaluable when we plan projects like these. 

The group will be looking for a new Chair and members for the Steering Committee in the next few months, as well as nominations for an individual who has impacted on women’s sport in Europe for the European Women and Sport award. For more details, or to sign up to the EWS network, please email me.