As part of the Guyana Government’s plan to complete a much needed National Sport Policy, the Ministry of Education Department of Culture, Youth and Sport held the first in a series of consultations with Sports Federation and Associations on Friday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The Ministry held the interface with the objective of meeting with a view to engendering their feedback into what would ultimately become the National Sports Policy. A draft document will be issued shortly.
The consultations that are scheduled for hosting in the various administrative regions over time are a primary Government initiative that has been high on Minister Henry’s agenda since 2016. Amidst her preamble, the Minister declared that “at the end of the day (the overall consultations) we want a policy that will work for Guyana.”
Noting that she expected that more representatives of Federations and Associations would have been in attendance, Minister Henry posited that there are more than 43 groups that were invited to the consultation.
Melissa Dow-Richardson, Assistant Director of Sport, who is the lead coordinator on the project, said the aim of the consultations is to focus on the fundamental principles of sports in addition to examining critical policy issues in sports. Other areas of focus of the public consultation were: governance, accountability, on ensuring a safe and secure environment, discrimination, harassment and athlete development.
Focus was also placed on sports administration, coaching and training, sports financing, tourism and intellectual property rights. With regards to the media, specific focus was on their roles and responsibilities in addition to its rights.
“When we look at sports we are not operating in isolation. There are over 28 Olympic sports disciplines and in Guyana most have representation and our aim is to develop a policy that takes us to another level,” added Dow-Richardson.
She noted that the National Sport of Circle Tennis created by Guyana should be projected as one like the road tennis in Barbados that could become an Olympic sport.
From the consultation she advised that her team will take shared values of sports that go beyond gender, age or ethnicity to encourage respect, competition, fair play and discipline as hallmarks of the National Sports Policy.
