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Americas Paralympic Committee gains independence

Published:Saturday | October 28, 2023 | 12:07 AM
Christopher Samuda (left), Jamaica Paralympic Association president and president of Jamaica Olympic Association, and Jodi-Ann McFarlane (second right), senior operations manager of Digicel Foundation chat with Paralympic athletes, Nathaniel Bailey (secon
Rudolph Brown
Christopher Samuda (left), Jamaica Paralympic Association president and president of Jamaica Olympic Association, and Jodi-Ann McFarlane (second right), senior operations manager of Digicel Foundation chat with Paralympic athletes, Nathaniel Bailey (second left), and Acee Green at the I’m Phenomenal and Paralympic Day press briefing at the Jamaica Olympic Association head office on Cunningham Avenue in Kingston earlier this year.

THE AMERICAS Paralympic Committee (APC), the governing body for para sports in North, South and Central America and the Caribbean, is now, with the blessing of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the global apex body, charting its independence from the IPC.

The APC is assuming ownership of its business in sport and the delivery of future senior and youth para games of the region, a departure from the past when the IPC held the reins. The regional organisation will still, however, maintain a very close working relationship with the IPC.

President of the Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA) and APC Executive Board member, Christopher Samuda, describes this event as “a historic evolution in the annals of para sports and a glorious opportunity for us in leadership to birth the DNA of a premier regional organisation that will embody and resonate sporting and cultural values while engendering a spirit that is defining of the social value of sport and inspires our athletes for whom we live, move and have our being”.

Out of the blocks quickly, the APC has established a legal and governance framework and Samuda, who chairs APC’s Legal Commission and co-chairs its Governance Commission with APC President Julio Cesar Avil, commented that “in any organisation and going concern, the governance model, which is framed by the legislative architecture of statutes, regulations, and policies, is foundational to viability and success. You have to get it right on all scores from the beginning or you’ll be dead wrong in the end”.

The APC Executive Board will govern from base up through critical board commissions comprising professionals of member countries. In articulating the rationale, Samuda made it clear that the governing board will give “members a greater and deeper sense of ownership of their organisation through participatory democracy in the work of the commissions the terms of reference for which are defining of the character of what we envision the organisation should be from a best-practice perspective”.

The APC currently has a membership of 33 countries and in marking its independence, it has commissioned the composition of an anthem, which will naturally become its call to action and is pursuing an aggressive marketing and branding strategy.