The 28 Summer Olympic International Federations were today provided with a self-assessment questionnaire to evaluate the current status of each ASOIF member in the important field of governance. The new process was developed by a dedicated ASOIF Governance Taskforce (GTF), set up in December 2015, following the uncovering of cases of mismanagement in some major sports bodies. The GTF is mandated to assist the International Federations (IFs) to promote and ensure a culture of good governance within their structures.

Tailored to the specific characteristics and needs of each sport organisation, the questionnaire covers five principles: transparency, integrity, democracy, sports development/solidarity and control mechanisms.  The application of the principles is being measured through 50 simple and measurable indicators (10 indicators per principle), based on a model developed at IDHEAP at the University of Lausanne. During the ASOIF General Assembly in April 2016, member federations approved this approach.

Click here to view the full questionnaire.

ASOIF President and GTF Chair Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “Good governance is vital for all IFs.  It is clear that IFs must be measured against defined criteria in order to achieve that goal. All ASOIF members have agreed to embrace governance principles and indicators using the Taskforce to advise and support the design of individual implementation tools as appropriate and necessary.”

The assessment will consider the different sizes and resources of IFs and focus on the evolution of governance processes in the respective organisations. Good governance will thus be treated as an ongoing and continuous process. ASOIF members will conduct an initial assessment and submit their responses by the end of January 2017.

The aim of this undertaking is to develop a comprehensive baseline report using the “must-have” indicators outlined above and to be published later in 2017. Preliminary survey findings will be presented at the ASOIF General Assembly in Aarhus, Denmark on 4 April 2017.  As a next step, the GTF will establish a management system to ensure the proper support for IFs in the implementation of all principles and indicators.

Click here to learn more about the role and the composition of the GTF.

Read here ASOIF GTF Report, approved by ASOIF General Assembly 2016 (updated version).

• This media release was originally published by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) on 18 November 2016. To access the original, please click here.