The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) is pleased to be a partner in the new Erasmus+ Project, “Guidance to Achieve More Equal leadership in Sport” (GAMES).

Gender Equality is an important action area for the OFI and the Olympic movement. The delivery of the GAMES project aligns with the OFI’s Gender Equality strategy to act around the strategic pillars of representation, visibility and coaching.

As an organisation the OFI’s staff profile is 41% male and 59% female. All Committees have a minimum gender balance of 40% and this is reflected across the Athletes’ Commission, Governance Committee, HR&R Committee and Audit and Risk Committee. The Board of Directors (Executive Committee) is 54% female and 66% male.

As Team Ireland, the athletes for the Olympic Games of Tokyo were gender balanced with a slight majority of female athletes. Female support staff came very close to the 40% (38%) however, the significant deficit in female elite coaches (11%) within the team, and across elite sport generally, is an area for action under the OFI’s Gender Equality Strategy.

As a leader for Olympic Sport in Ireland, the OFI sees its participation in the GAMES project as being of great importance in assessing its own organisation and its members to identify action plans and the sharing of knowledge and best practice.

Within the GAMES project, the OFI will be responsible for developing its tailor-made Action Plans to improve gender equality in the leadership within the NOC according to the results that emerge from the baseline analysis and including the most relevant practices/actions identified within the Global Pool of Actions.

The OFI will be responsible for organising a National Launching Event with the purpose of presenting its tailor-made Action Plan, as well as further reviewing its feasibility and receptivity among OFI member sports.

During the design of the action plan the OFI will take part in a series of peer-learning activities among partner NOCs to promote the sharing of knowledge, best practices and lessons learnt

GAMES is a 24-month project, which focuses to improve gender equality in the key leadership and decision-making positions of the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) by promoting structural changes in governance, enhancing the understanding of the existing cultural barriers and encouraging the NOCs to work with their member federations to create a sustainable change.

Under the guidance of the project coordinator - the EOC EU Office – the OFI is going to implement the GAMES project together with 7 other NOCs (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Latvia, North Macedonia and Turkey), and renowned experts in the field of gender equality and good governance, including Professor Emerita Kari Fasting from Equal Rights in Sport and I TRUST Sport. Furthermore, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will also act as a key player in terms of promoting and disseminating the project deliverables across all NOCs worldwide.