Sport Canterbury was invited to Auckland this week to present our Women and Girls Strategy to sector leaders at the Sport New Zealand Sector Hui.

With the theme of advancing gender equity and taking a strategic organisational approach, some 80 sector leaders were in attendance to connect, collaborate, and strategise for sustainable change.

Presenting the strategy poster and explaining ‘how we were able to create an internal working group’, Sport Canterbury was able to share the main conclusions for other organisations considering a similar approach.

Sport Canterbury’s Sector Support Manager, Megan Harlick hopes that this strategy can help National Sports Organisations (NSO’s) and Regional Sports Trusts (RST) increase female participation.

“Women and girls have lower participation rates across the board, are underrepresented in coaching and volunteer spaces, as well at high performance level.”

“This strategy offers something that can address this issue,” says Harlick.

Sport Canterbury hopes that other organisations will consider how to put similar strategies together - for their regions - and create buy-in, which will facilitate equity outcomes in physical activity for women across New Zealand.