World’s Olympic body increases funds for 4-yr
BY PETER ZOLEVEKE II
THE country’s National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands (NOCSI) will benefit as recipients of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) increase budget grant for solidarity to strengthen its athletes programs from the period from 2021 to 2024.
These came about following IOC Executive’s approval to increase the budget by 16 per cent, USD 590 Million (SBD 4.8 billion) last week.
“One important lesson that I hope we have all learnt from the current Corona crisis is that we need more solidarity. We need more solidarity within societies, but also among societies. Solidarity is one of the key Olympic values which the Olympic community is actively promoting. Today’s decision to increase the budget of our Olympic Solidarity programme for the next four-year cycle by 16 per cent to USD 590 million is a very strong demonstration in times of a worldwide crisis,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement last week.
“At 25 per cent, the increase in the funding of direct athlete support programmes is even higher than the overall increase. Additionally, the athletes as members of the Olympic teams will benefit from the 25 per cent increase for NOCs. The IOC continues to help all NOCs, particularly those with the greatest needs and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, through a wide range of programmes prioritising athletes’ development, and the training and education of their entourage.”
With the period falls within the country’s hosting of the 2023 Pacific Games NOCSI currently is working to strengthen its affiliated sports national association’s governance with 3 years to before the games.
NOCSI is working at strengthening the governance of the national federations that’s the first thing,” NOCSI President Martin Rara said in a recent interview.
He adds the NOCSI will link the National Federations throughout the provinces as the next step moving forward.
“The next step is for us to link the NFs to associations in the nine provinces, because most of the talents to be identified for trainings come from the provinces. Therefore, we have to have these mechanisms in place so that when the NFs reached out to their associations there’s no hassle,” Rara added.
Through NOCSI and the national government’s National Hosting Authority (NHA) there are plans to have athletes to expose and train at a higher competitive level in preparing – and with the ties established between the People Republic of China there’s a propose gateway to build athlete’s capacity to reach international standards.
To add, the priorities of Olympic Solidarity for 2021-2024 are as follows:
– Empower NOCs to keep athletes at the heart of the Olympic Movement through increased support to athletes for development at all levels, facilitating engagement through forums and exchanges, strengthening opportunities for the athletes’ entourage to play effective support roles, and ensuring that the provisions of the Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration can be implemented by the NOCs.
– Ensure good governance, financial control and compliance by strengthening capacity-building programmes for NOCs.
– Strengthen the Olympic Movement’s solidarity funding model by prioritising the principal Olympic Solidarity mission of focusing on NOCs with the greatest needs and ensuring effective communication of all streams of Olympic Solidarity funding by the NOCs.
– Align with the IOC’s strategy for the post-coronavirus world with the enhancement of dedicated Olympic Solidarity programmes to facilitate the NOCs’ participation in future Olympic and Youth Olympic Games, and by providing online education, advocacy and training opportunities for NOCs.
