New strategy for women's sport in Costa Rica

A new national strategy is underway in Costa Rica to improve women's sport in the country. The strategy includes creating a new NGO for women's sport and making use of the IWG's Montreal Toolkit to increase participation and leadership opportunities for girls and women.

Just after both the Ministry of Sport and the Olympic Committee of Costa Rica signed the Brighton Declaration in September 2011, meetings were held between the major stakeholders to begin the planning of a “National Strategy”and capitalize on the initiation of their relationship with the global women’s sport community.

The first all-day meeting was held in San Jose, Costa Rica on 30th September 2011. The purpose of this meeting was to share global perspectives, identify challenges and resources:especially those that concern the IWG. One invaluable way of meeting objectives is the IWG’s Montreal Toolkit, which is part of the legacy of the 2^nd IWG World Conference. This tool kit contains a wealth of resources for increasing the participation and leadership opportunities for girls and women in sport and physical activity.

Two major steps were explored to enhance the infrastructure that supports women’s sport in Costa Rica:

The creation of a consortium for women’s sport that will provide direct communication among all the stakeholders represented at the meeting
The creation of an NGO for women’s sport to support women’s sport development at all levels throughout the country. It will be exciting to see the next developments in Costa Rica with such high national expectations and goals.

The immediate goal of the strategic plan is the staging of a “Festival of Women in Sport” to be held in 2012 and biennially thereafter. Additional networking plans were shared in regard to technical expertise in women’s football (soccer) available in the USA in sport psychology and in the provision of expert coaching mentors for the five women coaches whose development in the Costa Rica’s national program is already underway. Costa Rica is hosting the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2014, which will be one significant milestone in the strategic plan.

Attendees also expressed interest in increased involvement in global women’s sport development and in attendingthe IOC Congress on Women and Sport in Los Angeles, 2012 and also the 6th IWG World Congress in Helsinki, Finland on 12-15 June 014 to network with others interested in the women and sport movement.

Present at the meeting were Anaya Maya Clemencia , IWG Americas representative, Chris Shelton and Carole Oglesby, IWG facilitators, Lorena Guerra, CROC, Yolanda Comacho, FIFA U-17, Monica Calderon, ICODER-Institute of Sport, Geen Clarke, Athletic Federation, Sandra Jimenez, University of Costa Rica, Marta Picado, Consultant, Minor Monge, Institute of Sport and William Todd, Minister of Sport.