Commonwealth Games Foundation launches new strategic plan with main focus on youth

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GENERAL Commonwealth Games Foundation launches new strategic plan with main focus on youth

Abigael Wafula 20:00 - 14.06.2023

It comes fewer than two months before Trinidad and Tobago is poised to stage the Commonwealth Youth Games from August 4 to 11.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has launched a new strategic plan with the aim of propelling the movement to new heights over the next decade in a bid to empower athletes and young people and increase equality in sport and society across the Commonwealth.

As reported by Inside the Games, the plan, entitled "Commonwealth United", discloses the CGF’s new vision from this year through 2034.

The plan also looks to assess the feasibility of hosting in new regions, consider multi-country games opportunities, and outline its ambition to create attractive and relevant sports programs.

The CGF Chief Executive Officer, Katie Sadleir told Inside the Games that the new plan will be keen to see to it that the Commonwealth Sports does not disappear into the ashes in the three years between staging the quadrennial Games.

"We want to turn the Commonwealth Movement into something that doesn’t just pop up every four years and make Commonwealth sports matter.

When you look at our membership, good three-quarters of them are also National Olympic Committees, so we need to make sure that we are not lost in what we do in three years and then come back to life,” she said.

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She added that the plan is something the CGF wants to explore with a lot more connection with their members since the Games have a huge profile.

"When you looked at what happened in Birmingham, it blew all our expectations out of the park in terms of the profile that it got, with 134 countries watching the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

But a lot of people don’t know about the other things that we do because we haven’t really had significant resources in our communications and marketing teams to tell that story,” Sadleir said.

The CGF has the goal of becoming one of the best-governed and well-managed sports federations in the world that will be commercially sustainable, underpinned by robust financial management with adequate reserves.

"Building on these strong foundations, our new 'Commonwealth United' strategic plan 2023–2034 provides a clear framework to propel the movement to new heights over the next decade.

The strategic plan outlines our ambition to deliver inspirational and impactful games, pushing boundaries to ensure there are opportunities to host, across the Commonwealth, in a variety of formats," Sadleir added.

She also revealed that the CGF will be keen to work closely with the international federations to ensure they create attractive and dynamic sports programmes.

"Our new vision, 'Our Commonwealth, united through sport', is a powerful, clear and succinct, directional statement about what we are seeking to achieve.

Our values - 'Humanity', 'Equality' and 'Destin'’ remain central, as we continue to focus on advocacy and legacy,” she added.

It comes fewer than two months before Trinidad and Tobago is poised to stage the Commonwealth Youth Games from August 4 to 11. Victoria, Australia, is set to hold the Commonwealth Games in 2026, but no host has yet to be confirmed for the 2030 edition.

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