The SIGA Youth Council is now in full action mode. Composed of young leaders from around the world, aged 18-25, SIGA’s newest internal organ held its official inaugural meeting and elected its leadership for the current 2-year term.
The SIGA Youth Council elected 25-year-old Tosin Gbaja from the U.K. as Chair and 25-year-old Anton Klischewski from Germany as Vice Chair.
Set up during the recent Sport Integrity Week the SIGA Youth Council provides a unique platform for young people to come together, address the challenges facing Sport and the wider industry and jointly instigating the much-needed cultural change and integrity reforms. The SIGA Youth Council will have a wide range of responsibilities across all SIGA work streams. This includes, but is not limited to, holding direct representation on the SIGA Council, to ensure young people have an active voice at the highest levels of SIGA’s decision-making structures. To this end, the SIGA Youth Council will be developing a series of youth-focused strategic partnerships, thought leadership projects and global advocacy initiatives.
In an appeal addressed to global youth, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, CEO of SIGA and Chairman and CEO of SIGA AMERICA, stated:
“Young people are the leaders of our time. They have the legitimacy, the power, the opportunity and, now, with the SIGA Youth Council, they have finally the right structure and support to lead a global movement for change. I know they are ready for the challenge. I encourage them to act, make their voice heard, engage others and push for the much-needed reforms in Sport and the wider industry.”
Tosin Gbaja, newly elected Chair of the SIGA Youth Council, commented:
“I joined SIGA because I felt it was important to be part of the change in many different ways. So, I am thrilled to be elected Chair for the Youth Council. I can’t wait for everyone to create the change we talk about, making sure it’s productive, sustainable and inclusive for all. As we know, representation at leadership roles is an issue that sports is suffering with so the fact that the SIGA youth council has appointed a Black women as head means that it’s a step in the right direction for all Black women everywhere.”
Anton Klischewski, Vice-Chair of the SIGA Youth Council, added:
“The SIGA Youth Council wants to engage young people in sport integrity and governance matters and empower the next generation of sport integrity leaders. As a constructive critic of the new generation, I am motivated to co-lead the way for our team while advocating for a significant increase in consideration of binding human rights requirements in the economic sector of sport. Through teamwork and youth-led organisation, the chair and vice-chair firmly believe that combining expertise from proven youth leaders in the field of sport integrity can result in concrete outputs in the months to come.”
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ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world´s largest coalition in the field of sport´s governance and integrity. Supported by more than 100 international multi-industry supporters, SIGA is an independent and neutral organisation whose mission is to bring about meaningful reforms and enhance the integrity of all sports through a set of universal standards operated by an independent and neutral body. SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport. Click on the hyperlinks for the list of SIGA Members and Committed Supporters and SIGA Partners.
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