WADA’s Africa Office hosts African Partnership Forum

This week, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Africa Office, in cooperation with the Agency’s NADO/RADO Relations Department, hosted a virtual African Partnership Forum to enhance National Anti-Doping Organizations’ (NADOs’) partnerships and cooperation in the region. The Forum gathered representatives from developing and established NADOs (both from the African region and beyond), as well as other partner organizations that are key to the ongoing development and implementation of anti-doping programs in Africa.

The Forum, which was attended by over 40 participants from 17 different countries, allowed African and international stakeholders to come together to discuss and address the way forward for anti-doping partnerships and cooperation in the region. Specifically, participants looked at case studies of previous African and international NADO partnerships, explored the challenges and opportunities of establishing a NADO in Africa, examined the role of Regional Anti-Doping Organizations (RADOs), and heard perspectives from a Major Event Organizer (the International Paralympic Committee).

WADA’s Africa Office Director, Rodney Swigelaar, said: “WADA’s Compliance Monitoring Program requires all countries to have national anti-doping programs in place that are in line with the World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards. While the Agency monitors Signatory compliance closely, as the global regulator in anti-doping, WADA simply does not have the resources to directly and actively assist and support the development of every NADO around the world. It is therefore critical for developed NADOs with the requisite skills, resources and capacities to play a role in mentoring and empowering those in need of such support. This expands the reach and impact of anti-doping programs by enhancing capacity building and knowledge sharing between Anti-Doping Organizations and empowering local program delivery.”

WADA’s NADO Program Strategy highlights the role that partnerships can play in raising the quality, scope and impact of anti-doping programs globally. As part of this Strategy, WADA facilitates NADO-NADO partnerships. These partnerships include a detailed project plan where a developed, more experienced NADO assists and mentors a less developed NADO through training, guidance and mentorship. WADA acts as the “glue” in these partnerships by initiating, coordinating, facilitating and monitoring such co-operations, which are often formalized through agreements.

In Africa, as in other parts of the world, partnerships have become, and will continue to be, a key driver of anti-doping development. Over the past few years, several African countries have benefited from the WADA partnership program in order to obtain guidance and support in the process of establishing independent NADOs and developing robust national anti-doping programs. Through the partnership program, WADA helps to identify a compatible mentor NADO for each of these countries, facilitates the signing of a partnership agreement, and assists in the development and implementation of a Project Plan. Some examples of successful NADO-NADO (mentee-mentor) partnerships, which involved WADA directly in various regions of the world are:

• Azerbaijan – Poland
• Belarus – United Kingdom
• Egypt – South Africa
• Ethiopia – South Africa
• Jamaica – Canada
• Kenya – Norway
• Turkey - Norway
• Uzbekistan - Korea

Find out more about WADA’s NADO-NADO partnerships here.