The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations (UN) Women launched a Gender Equality Through Sport Bridging Project, which will aim to eliminate gender-based violence.

The project was revealed at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which is currently taking place at the UN headquarters in New York.

Lydia Nsekera, the chair of the Gender Equality and Diversity Commission, gave a brief explanation of the project.

The project aims to support sport and community development organisations, as well as policymakers, across three continents, to address the important issues of gender equality and gender-based violence through sport-based programmes,

said Nsekera.

This project was designed after the success of the One Win Leads to Another (OWLA) programme.

The programme used sports to reduce violence against females in Brazil and Argentina, during a period in which the Rio 2016 Olympics and the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics happened.

The IOC and UN will launch a year-long knowledge transfer programme, where the OWLA information will be transmitted into the bridging project.

IOC's Olympism365 will be working to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The CSW brought 300 leaders from around the world together to discuss innovative programme models and ways to advocate gender equality.

The IOC is currently developing ways in which they can prevent athletes from being harassed or abused, as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 strategic roadmap.

The CSW was held to discuss the best methods to advance gender equality ©IOC

Prominent experts from around the world were in attendance at the CSW session. 

Among them was Ana Moser, former volleyball player, Olympian and the first female Sports Minister of Brazil.

Ambassador Isabelle Picco and former UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also made an appereance.

UN Women director of policy, programme and intergovernmental division Sarah Hendrick addressed the audience at the event about the framework of the project.

The future needs a meaningful intergenerational engagement with all races, genders, and people of different abilities, so that everywhere in the world, a 10-year-old girl in 2023 will be a thriving young woman in 2030.

Said Hendrick.

For millions of girls around the world, they can benefit enormously from sport — and become the generation that knows no divisions or gender-based discrimination. But they need support. I see no other field as powerful as sport to influence the next generation.

Equality in sports has already shown improvements, with IOC female members increasing from 21 per cent in 2013, to 40 per cent this year.