Serbia bring on swimming and archery federations

“My aim was to introduce full spectrum of issues regarding Paralympic organisations in order to raise awareness of the participants about the complexity of the Paralympic Movement and about the opportunities for improvement for our Movement and for their organisations.”

A new para-swimming association has been developed in Serbia alongside closer collaboration in para-archery thanks to training and support received through the Agitos Foundation, the development arm of the International Paralympic Committee.

In February 2014, Bojan Jacimovic from the Serbian National Paralympic Committee joined a training session as part of the Organisational Capacity Programme (OCP).

The OCP is designed to support National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) with their development in governance, management, leadership and sport promotion, spreading the Paralympic Movement worldwide and establishing athlete pathways.

Following the training, participants then returned to their countries to plan and deliver a series of workshops on a national level.

In the first workshop, 15 members of the Serbian NPC, athletes and volunteers were gathered by Jacimovic in Belgrade to be introduced to the OCP and its aims.

“Having in mind that we have participants with different expertise and different levels of experience I presented all areas,” Jacimovic said. “My aim was to introduce full spectrum of issues regarding Paralympic organisations in order to raise awareness of the participants about the complexity of the Paralympic Movement and about the opportunities for improvement for our Movement and for their organisations.”

It was at this meeting that agreement was reached to start bringing together swimming clubs who run para-swimming programmes under one national organisation.

Since then, several centres of excellence have been established and para-swimming has grown. There are now three clubs in Nis, Kragujavac and Novisad, in addition to Belgrade, with a total of 70 athletes.

Alongside swimming, the Serbian NPC also worked with the national archery association to arrange international classification for 16 athletes.

Both the development of swimming and para-archery are closely related to an increase in participation in para-alpine skiing through ongoing training camps. This project is supported by the Grant Support Programme, another Agitos Foundation project which aims to develop para-sport globally.

In addition to development with National Federations, the second OCP workshop resulted in attendees beginning to consider a strategic plan for the NPC and how para-sport could be integrated into the Strategy of Serbian Sport Development 2014-18.

It included government representatives from the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs.

Delivered by the IPC Academy and the Agitos Foundation, the OCP is a two year programme that prioritises learning and training opportunities for NPCs, their staff, volunteers and stakeholders in the key areas that the International Paralympic Committee targets as strategic priorities, so that they can deliver workshops in their own countries and regions and take para-sport to new levels.

Two editions of the OCP started in 2014, including 26 NPCs. The next edition will target the Americas region and will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil in April.