Rugby Africa ramps up drive to grow women’s game

The newly-created Women’s Advisory Committee (WAC) of Rugby Africa has scaled up gender inclusion with a new scoring system created to help member organisations meet their respective goals.

Rugby Africa Executive Committee Member Paula Lanco from Kenya said: “Women’s participation in our growing area with the biggest potential because rugby is a progressive, modern, attractive, dynamic and most of all an inclusive sport played across the continent.

“The promotion and positioning of women in rugby at all levels will result in significantly increased involvement and interest from fans, players and ultimately investors.

“Therefore, we aim at growing the sport with a focus on development pathways for women and girls, working with key stakeholders from relevant committees. Key research projects will help us identify how to improve gender inclusion strategies within our member unions.”

Khaled Babbou, president of Rugby Africa said: “With the WAC we have set the institutional basis to scale up our efforts to be gender-inclusive and meet our strategic goals for women in rugby where we aim at a minimum representation of 30 per cent of women in leadership roles and where 40 per cent of the registered players on the continent will be women by 2025.”

Andrew Owor, vice president of Rugby Africa said: “We also aim at having four African teams in the World Rugby top 30 rankings, two teams in the women’s rugby World Cup and in the world series.”

The WAC will be administrated by Rugby Africa’s Women’s Rugby Manager Maha Zaoui and has appointed its first member with Rolande Boro, Rugby Africa Executive Committee Member, World Rugby Council Member and President of the Burkina Faso Rugby Union.

In partnership with ANA and Sports Leo