Continents make strides in biennial governance review

Americas retained its leading position while Asia displayed the most improvement in the second governance review of the five continental archery associations.

The first took place in 2020 and the follow-up in 2022.

World Archery Americas added 23 points to score highest with 57. World Archery Asia, which ranked fourth with 20 in 2020, increased 31 points to move ahead of Europe (45) and Oceania (37).

The significant progress in Asia came with the development of a new business plan focusing on the pillars of events, grassroots programmes, member networks and content.

Following elections at the end of 2021, World Archery Africa made steady improvement, nearly doubling its score from nine to 17.

The continental federations were assessed on areas such as democracy, transparency, communications and development.

Four of the five continents now have strategic plans while all have improved transparency, making key governance documents available online.

Oceania has committed to issuing a strategic plan in 2022 while the transparency score for World Archery Africa will significantly improve once again when its new website is made publicly available.

Important changes to the composition of the respective executive boards over the period include the addition of athlete in the Americas, a gender quota in Africa and the partial introduction of term limits in Europe.

Athlete representation in decision making, gender balance and term limits throughout governance structures are all targets for further improvement during the next cycle.

The continental governance review is based on the similar project run by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which produced its fourth report earlier this summer.

World Archery was highlighted for publishing elected role descriptions, and its support to and monitoring of members.

The federation made significant progress in areas of democracy and control, which will continue with the full implementation of term limits in 2023.