Sundaymail Editor
Online Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) have begun the process of preparing for the next two editions of the Olympics slated for Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles four years later.
Top of the agenda will be the formation of a strategic plan aimed at formulating a road map for the two quadrennial events.
“Now that the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games torch has been extinguished, and the Paris 2024 Games just three years away, the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) has started the process of developing its 2021-2025 strategic plan.
“ZOC is set to embark on the journey towards developing its 2021-2025 strategic plan with Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 in mind,” reads part of a statement from ZOC issued Thursday.
A strategic planning workshop has been pencilled for September 17-19, with a number of significant milestones leading to it.
These milestones include a 12-member focus group session slated for August 28, and a team leaders’ session scheduled for September 4.
ZOC said they had carefully selected participants, drawn from the sport industry and who will constitute the 12-member focus group.
They are expected to carry out a detailed analysis of ZOC, and the external factors affecting its operations, in preparation for the workshop.
The team leader session will see the eight identified individuals for this task force, mostly strategic planning facilitators trained and certified in 2017, undergoing a comprehensive preparatory training session on September 4.
Their primary role will be to lead break-away sessions, developing different elements of the new strategic plan during the planning workshop.
The team-leader training will empower these leaders with skills to deal with groups and group dynamics, as well as associated challenges, during the actual strategic planning workshop in September.
Sports management consultant Robert Mutsauki has been engaged as the facilitator to lead and guide the formulation of the four-year strategic plan.
Mutsauki, a former ZOC chief executive and technical director of ANOCA, is a seasoned sport expert who has to date facilitated strategic plans for ANOCA and several National Olympic Committees in Africa including Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia.
“The strategic planning process requires the involvement and consultation of key stakeholders at various stages to ensure ownership, or at least buy-in, when it comes to implementation of the developed strategy.
“To ensure the formulation of a sound and credible strategic plan for the ZOC, we have to follow due process and the starting point was in fact the review of the implementation of the 2016 – 2020 strategic plan which was carried out last November,” Mutsauki said.
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter