World Aquatics invites its National Member Federations to apply for the World Aquatics Mentorship Programme, a project crafted to aid countries in achieving good sports governance, efficient administration, and effective leadership.
Heading into its third year, the World Aquatics Mentorship Programme brings together 10 national members from the five World Aquatics continents for a seven-month initiative to enhance governance, streamline administration and strengthen leadership within national aquatics federations.
Building bridges among the participating National Federations, the World Aquatics Mentorship programme is aimed to guide mentees into the creation of integrated good governance strategies and can be a strong catalyst for collaboration and cooperative learning – between National Federations themselves and between World Aquatics.
Putting short, mid-term and long-term strategic plans in place while also increasing the management competencies is a proven way for National Federations to better promote aquatics within their country – leading to enhanced outcomes from grassroots swimming initiatives to elite performers.
Reflecting on the development efforts of the World Aquatics Mentorship Programme, World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam remarked:
“We are working to support the growth of our national federations, to inspire change and create opportunities for development. Initiatives like the World Aquatics Mentorship Programme are integral to achieving our shared mission of ensuring everyone can participate, compete in, and benefit from aquatic sports.”
Participating in the 2023 edition of the World Aquatics Mentorship Programme, Woody Lawrence, President of the Dominica Amateur Swimming Association reflected on the project:
“The World Aquatics Mentorship Programme brought forward our goals in three key areas. Firstly, we ensured our governance standards were at the highest standards and put together guidelines, recommendations and best practices. In addition, this project brought us in even more regular contact with the international aquatics community including World Aquatics and Panam Aquatics. We have been having robust two-way conversations about how we can maximise the positive impact of aquatics on our island nation.”
Helping facilitate discussions and planning for the upcoming 2024 mentorship programme is Alexandra Karacsonyi. Holding advanced management degrees from ESSEC in France and Stanford University in the USA, Karacsonyi is a Design Thinking lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences (HEG) in Geneva, Switzerland. Karacsonyi also brings over 20 years of real-life strategy and marketing experience working with leading global companies such as Bain & Company, PepsiCo, L’Oreal and PayPal.
“The Mentorship programme is a wonderful opportunity for National Federations to take a step back from the daily activities and to reflect and plan their future development. In the previous edition participants enjoyed networking with other National Federations, sharing best practices and getting support and inspiration from each other” explained Alexandra Karacsonyi.
World Aquatics is accepting applications from national members until 5th of April 2024. For more information, interested National Member Federations can contact the World Aquatics Development Department (development@worldaquatics.com).