BNSC to shift focus from elite sport
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday November 11, 2023 06:00
The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) board chairperson, Marumo Morule and CEO Tuelo Serufho recently led a team to Düsseldorf, Germany, where the TAFISA congress was held. It was the first time that Morule and Serufho attended the congress, which served as an opener and changes in the sport fraternity are expected to follow. Speaking to MmegiSport, Serufho said the mandate of the commission is sport and recreation development. “Hitherto, by design or default, we have been focused on, not even sport development, but rather elite sport, perhaps to the detriment of development and certainly recreation,” he said.
Serufho said through the TAFISA congress, they have been able to learn of the best examples around areas of sport for all and development. “I believe that should help us recalibrate. I must of course hasten to underscore that we will not be slowing down on elite sport development, rather, we (are) empowered to explore new partnership opportunities to drive recreation and mass participation,” Serufho said. He said the BNSC will draw an example of the partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to nurture a partnership with the Ministry of Health to encourage mass participation and in the process assist in fighting non-communicable diseases. “We discussed issues such as while sport is good for health, if not done properly, it can have an adverse impact on climate action, as such we will be careful that our actions henceforth are those in line with the global climate action objectives,” Serufho said.
Meanwhile, Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) signed a contract worth $10,000 (around P130,000) with TAFISA to implement the Nike Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway project in Botswana for one year starting in January 2024. WASBO chairperson, Keenese Katisenge-Tizhani, signed the contract on behalf of Botswana. The project builds upon the existing partnership between TAFISA and Nike Inc., with WASBO taking the lead in implementing the pilot country-specific approach in Botswana. The project aims to continue to build capacity in the field of Sport for All, drive the adoption of key tools, and practices to improve the quality of coaching girls and increase recruitment and retention of girls in sport in Botswana and beyond. Senior manager at TAFISA, Game Mothibi, said TAFISA and Nike are marking 10 years this year, mainly on increasing participation of women and girls in sport across all levels. “In the last collaboration, TAFISA was implementing Nike’s Coaching Girls Guide Toolkit, which is a guide used to attract and retain girls in sport through coaching. This month, we launched a new project under the same partnership of implementing the girls’ safe and positive coaching pathway, which has four toolkits, continuation of coaching girls guide and added the new ones (safeguarding, coaching her and body confidence),” she said.
Mothibi said the pathway will be implemented amongst TAFISA members with the target of five continental training of trainers, 16 trainers, 480 coaches and officials, and around 15, 000 girls. She said the project will be implemented amongst international sport organisations and continental Sport for All Bodies, which include the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), AUSC Region 5, and WASBO. It is being piloted for country-based implementation. “If WASBO, representing Botswana is successful, we will then target countries to implement the project,” Mothibi said.