Rugby Africa Cup 2020 sets a first milestone for gender equality in rugby

Rugby Africa celebrates International Woman’s Day and its #EachForEqual initiative with the announcement that the women’s and men’s edition of the Rugby Africa Cup 2020 will concur at the same time. Whenever suitable, the women’s match will be played as a curtain raiser in the same venue as the men’s matches.

“This is a logic step to implement our vision for a gender equal sport. We are dedicated to take leadership in women’s rugby and look forward to developing grass root sports as well as the flagship competitions towards a gender equal game. In a next step we need to look at creating tournaments in the various regions to organically develop and grow team participation. Women in rugby is one of our key strategic priorities and in the week leading to the International Woman’s Day we have celebrated achievements of women in African Rugby to put the enormous potential we have in the spotlight”, states Khaled Babbou, Rugby Africa President.

The Rugby Africa #EachForEqual campaign leading to the announcement featured women in African Rugby from different involvement levels ranging from players, referees, citing commissioner, management to the board room. While Rugby Africa demonstrates a strong commitment to gender equality, it is events like International Women's Day that present an opportunity to bring greater attention to the fundamental issue of gender equality within the sport industry. Gender balance increases participation and is the foundation for a sustainable development. By breaking down barriers Rugby Africa can drive inclusive leadership and governance, build high performance competitions and create an impactful profile to grow audience and investment. Indeed, accelerating progress toward parity could boost African economies by the equivalent of 10 percent of their collective GDP by 2025, new research from the McKinsey Global Institute finds.

Recently, Rugby Africa announced the appointment of Maha Zaoui as Women’s Rugby Manager to lead the strategic and operational development of female rugby with the goals to further increase the participation levels overall and to accelerate the evolution of the high-performance game.

World Rugby Women’s General Manager, Katie Sadleir said: “Rugby Africa is at the forefront in accelerating the development of women in rugby within its region. Since the launch of the global strategy for development of women’s rugby, we have seen transformational change on and off the field of play worldwide. Women’s rugby continues to grow with more than 2.7 million women and girls playing rugby at all levels, accounting for more than a quarter of players globally.”

“Rugby Africa play a key role in the continued success for developing women in rugby. Off the field the board of Rugby Africa has made fundamental changes which show its commitment in providing equal opportunities for women in rugby.  On the field, by aligning the Rugby Africa Cup to host men’s and women’s matches at the same time this will have a positive impact in raising the profile of the women’s 15s game in Africa.”