UN Women Brazil and SIGA join forces to promote gender equity in sport

The UN Women Brazil and SIGA, the world’s leading independent coalition in the field of sport integrity, signed an agreement on Wednesday, June 14, for the promotion of gender equity and the empowerment of girls and women in sports.

As proud media partners of SIGA, we here at AS USA are happy to announce that the Memorandum of Understanding was signed during SIGA LATIN AMERICA’s “CEO Dinner,” and hosted by Pacto pelo Esporte in São Paulo. The partnership formalizes the commitment of both parties to work closely together to promote actions and develop tools to enhance sports governance, helping make the sports world a safer, more inclusive, and equal environment.

UN Women and Sport Integrity Global Alliance commit to joining forces and mobilizing partnerships with sports organizations, governments, civil society, media, and the private sector to advocate for better pathways for women’s leadership in sports. The aim is to achieve gender equity in the decision-making structures of sports organizations in accordance with SIGA’s Universal Standards on Good Governance in Sport. The parties will work with sports organizations for the adoption of gender-sensitive governance models and actions. They will share knowledge about women in leadership positions in sports as well as develop products and tools to promote gender equality at the global level.

“Sport is a powerful tool to pursue the global goal of achieving gender equality and empowerment of girls and women. UN Women appreciates SIGA ‘s commitment to promoting equality and combating historical gender discrimination in the sports ecosystem and is confident that this partnership will make a real difference in promoting access, opportunities, and full participation of women throughout the sports chain, in Brazil and around the world,” says Ana Carolina Querino, Deputy Representative of UN Women in Brazil, who attended the signing ceremony.

“It’s great to see UN Women shouldering with SIGA to promote the highest governance standards in sport, close the gender gap and create more leadership pathways for women in the sector. This partnership will strengthen the SIGAWomen Programme and is a key component of the governance work we are working hard to implement with sports organizations, both on a continental level, through SIGA LATIN AMERICA, and the wider SIGA platform. Gender equity is not only the right thing to do. It drives innovation and makes for better business. We invite organizations to give a step forward and join us,” said Katie Simmonds, Global COO, SIGA, Managing Director, SIGAWomen, Vice Chair, SIGA LATIN AMERICA.

The activities foreseen in the agreement include but are not limited to:

The partnership between UN Women and SIGA began in 2022, when, during Sport Integrity Week held in Portugal, SIGA became a signatory to the letter of commitment of the Sport for Generation Equality framework.

This reinforced SIGA’s deep commitment to implementing the gender equality agenda in the sports ecosystem by undertaking efforts to develop the Six Principles of Sport for Generation Equality, which include promoting women’s leadership in sport, preventing and responding to gender-based violence, and eliminating inequalities in investment in women’s sport, among others.