The IOC involved in the 4th “Women Deliver” Conference in Copenhagen

Led by Lydia Nsekera, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegation will be taking part in the 4th Women Deliver Conference from 16 to 19 May, and will be organising a side event which looks at the role of the sports movement in helping to achieve the main objectives of this Conference: maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights.

The 4th Women Deliver Conference is taking place from 16 to 19 May in Copenhagen, in Denmark. These Conferences are the world’s largest global gathering to focus on the health, rights and well-being of girls and women. Based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in the framework of its Agenda 2030, this 4th Conference will be focusing on how to implement the SDGs as they relate to girls and women, with a specific focus on health – in particular maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights – and the inter-connections with gender equality, education, the environment and economic empowerment.

As part of this important event, the IOC, in line with the objectives set in its Olympic Agenda 2020, is organising a side event on 18 May in collaboration with the Danish Olympic Committee (NOC) and in the presence of IOC Member HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, to demonstrate the essential role played by sport and physical activity in promoting a healthy lifestyle, a vital part of achieving gender equality, and highlight the role the Olympic Movement can play in achieving the Agenda 2030 SDGs.

Entitled “Giving Women and Girls a Sporting Chance” and offering gymnastics classes to music, this side event will advocate sport as a tool and platform for:

- promoting a healthy lifestyle and combatting non-transmissible diseases;
- reducing infant mortality and improving post-natal recovery;
- disseminating information on sexual and reproductive health; and
- boosting self-esteem and independence, facilitating social integration, combatting gender stereotypes and offering development potential. 

The power of sport

Against the backdrop of photos of great female Olympians, in Hall E of the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, the IOC delegation will be led by Lydia Nsekera, an IOC Member since 2009, Chair of its Women in Sport Commission and the first female member of the FIFA Executive Committee, since 2012. 

After a welcome speech by NOC President Niels Nygaard, and an address by Crown Prince Frederik, Lydia Nsekera will talk about the importance of sport in eliminating all forms of discrimination, particularly violence against women and girls, and achieving gender equality. It can do this by using its convening power to rally communities, engage young people, reach out to the most difficult and vulnerable groups, and create shared interests. It contributes to effective and sustainable change. 

The IOC is also playing an active part in the 4th Women Deliver Conference. It will have a stand with a display of photos prepared by The Olympic Museum to illustrate the evolution of women’s sport. It will be attending several of the concurrent sessions, including the one on “leadership and livelihoods through sport”. It will also be involved in the Girl Power in Play plenary session, which calls for the right of women to practise sport and empower them on and off the field of play. On this occasion, Lydia Nsekera will be symbolically presented with the SDGs Game Ball, and will take part in the match to launch the Global Goals World Cup in the evening of 17 May. The ball will be decorated with the 17 UN SDGs.