The theme of the 2024 Pink Reign cam­paign launched by Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis to break down bar­ri­ers to pro­mote greater women and girls’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in sport is aligned with the Brighton plus Helsin­ki 2014 De­c­la­ra­tion on Women and Sport.

The first in­ter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence on women and sport was held in Brighton, UK, on May 5-8, 1994. The 6th In­ter­na­tion­al Women Group [IWG] World Con­fer­ence on Women and Sport was held in Helsin­ki, Fin­land, June 12-15, 2014. The 2024 Pink Reign cam­paign com­bines var­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing free fit­ness ses­sions, life skills work­shops, mar­tial arts ses­sions, danc­ing, the pop­u­lar run­ning chal­lenge, and pan­el dis­cus­sions ti­tled You Go Girl.

The Brighton plus Helsin­ki 2014 De­c­la­ra­tion aims for “gov­ern­men­tal, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions and all those in­sti­tu­tions in­volved in sport, phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty to ap­ply the Prin­ci­ples and Rec­om­men­da­tions set out in this De­c­la­ra­tion by de­vel­op­ing ap­pro­pri­ate poli­cies, struc­tures and mech­a­nisms.”

These are:

• Main­stream the val­ues and prin­ci­ples of eq­ui­ty and di­ver­si­ty in­to all in­ter­na­tion­al, re­gion­al, na­tion­al, and lo­cal strate­gies for sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty;

• En­sure that all women and girls have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty in a safe and sup­port­ive en­vi­ron­ment that pre­serves the rights, dig­ni­ty, and re­spect of the in­di­vid­ual;

• Recog­nise the di­ver­si­ty of women’s and girls’ needs, es­pe­cial­ly those with dis­abil­i­ties through de­liv­ery of Ar­ti­cle 30 of the 2006 UN Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties; and those liv­ing and work­ing in cul­tures and con­texts which may be hos­tile to fe­male par­tic­i­pa­tion and per­for­mance;

• in­crease and sup­port the in­volve­ment of women in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty at all lev­els and in all func­tions and roles;

• en­sure that the knowl­edge, ex­pe­ri­ences, and val­ues of women con­tribute to the de­vel­op­ment of sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty;

• pro­mote the recog­ni­tion of women’s and girls’ in­volve­ment in sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty as a con­tri­bu­tion to pub­lic life, com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, and in build­ing healthy na­tions;

• pro­mote the recog­ni­tion by women of the in­trin­sic val­ue of sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and their con­tri­bu­tions to per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and healthy lifestyles.

• in­crease co­op­er­a­tion be­tween women and men and en­sure the sup­port of men to pro­mote gen­der equal­i­ty in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

(https://iwg­wom­e­nand­sport.org/wp-con­tent/up­loads/2019/03/Brighton-plus-Helsin­ki-2014-De­c­la­ra­tion-on-Women-and-Sport.pdf)

Min­is­ter Cud­joe-Lewis al­lud­ed to cul­tur­al and so­ci­etal fac­tors that have his­tor­i­cal­ly in­hib­it­ed women and girls’ mass par­tic­i­pa­tion in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty. A fit­ting ex­am­ple is the dif­fer­en­tial at­ti­tude of par­ents to­ward their son’s and daugh­ters’ in­volve­ment in sports. The sons are gen­er­al­ly en­cour­aged, while the girls, even though they are en­cour­aged, are con­stant­ly re­mind­ed about the im­por­tance of study­ing. There­fore, her ob­ser­va­tion that “girls are not born un­der-con­fi­dent and.., not born un­sport­ing,’ em­pha­sizes the need for in­ter­ven­tion through var­i­ous pro­grammes such as the Pink Reign cam­paign to pro­mote women and girls not on­ly as pro­fes­sion­al, am­a­teur or recre­ation­al ath­letes but al­so as of­fi­cials, ad­min­is­tra­tors and lead­ers in sports.

The da­ta pro­vid­ed for 2020 to 2023 of over 1,000 girls tak­ing part in the #Girl­srunTTChal­lenge is en­cour­ag­ing, as this pe­ri­od was af­fect­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, re­search on the in­ter­sec­tion of gen­der, sport, and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty com­ple­ments the 2024 cam­paign ac­tiv­i­ties.

Break­ing the back of the tra­di­tion­al view that sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty are not ac­tiv­i­ties for girls and women is a work in progress, sim­i­lar to en­cour­ag­ing per­sons to get in­volved in sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty to reap the mul­ti­fac­eted phys­i­cal, men­tal, emo­tion­al, and so­cial ben­e­fits. The min­is­ter’s ad­vo­ca­cy and the de­liv­ery of the pro­grammes are steps in the right di­rec­tion.