WADA publishes 2020 Code Compliance Annual Report

Today, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) publishes its 2020 Code Compliance Annual Report (Report). This second yearly report of its kind is an important element of WADA’s commitment to transparency and of WADA’s Compliance Strategy that was endorsed by WADA’s Executive Committee in 2019.

One of WADA’s primary roles as the global regulatory body for anti-doping is to monitor effective implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) and its related International Standards (Standards) by over 350 Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs); such as, National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs), International Federations (IFs) and Major Event Organizations.

In particular, the purpose of the Report is to:

• Clearly outline the achievements and challenges of WADA’s Compliance Monitoring Program in an integrated fashion, measuring objectives against key performance indicators through quantitative and qualitative analysis, including areas for improvement;
   
• Detail the interpretation and implications of the findings, trends and lessons learned over time towards Code Signatory Organizations, enhancing their compliance maturity as defined in the Compliance Strategy; and
   
• Identify opportunities for continual improvement that are the foundation for the following year’s Compliance Annual Plan. This cycle is repeated annually as WADA seeks to develop compliance maturity through continual improvement of its own compliance activities and the global anti-doping system.

WADA’s Chief Operating Officer, Frédéric Donzé said: “This Code Compliance Annual Report reflects some of the challenges that the anti-doping community, like many other areas of society, faced in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both Code Signatories’ anti-doping programs and WADA’s compliance monitoring activities, and we had to adapt and innovate to carry out our mandate. It is positive that we were able to continue to monitor Signatories’ anti-doping programs throughout the year; albeit, on a more limited scale than planned.  We did so in particular through continuous monitoring and the introduction of virtual audits, while providing significant resources and support to Signatories in amending their anti-doping rules and preparing for the entry into force of the revised Code and International Standards on 1 January 2021.”

Some of the key findings of the Report include the following:

• Flexible compliance measures applied by WADA to recognize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Code Signatories, in particular the temporary freezing of deadlines and enforcement procedures in the compliance monitoring program, resulted in fewer corrective actions being implemented by Signatories.
• The area of results management generated a significant number of non-conformities across WADA’s monitoring programs compared with previous years.
   
• Due to the more complex nature of their anti-doping programs, NADOs generated more non-conformities than IFs and took longer to implement corrective actions.
   
• Agencies and organizations such as the International Testing Agency (ITA) and the Canadian NADO, to which a number of IFs delegated some or all parts of their anti-doping program, contributed to significantly improve IF anti-doping program independence and compliance.

To read more about key findings and how WADA has addressed them, please consult the full 2020 Code Compliance Annual Report.