At a glance: Research-led advocacy that directly produced national policy change for women's leadership in district sports administration.
The starting problem
Organised sport in Bangladesh was, for decades, largely closed to girls and young women — both through social norms and through the absence of any institutional structure within sports federations to include them. No systematic data existed documenting the scale or shape of this exclusion.
The research phase
Supported by Women Win, NUK interviewed stakeholders across sectors — coaches, federation officials, parents, and girls themselves — building the evidence base that had previously been missing from the conversation.
The advocacy phase
- Findings were presented directly to government sports administration officials.
- NUK's advocacy led to approval of gender training requirements for all female leadership and decision-making positions across the 64 district sports offices.
- Women's wings began being established within national sports federations, a structural element previously absent.
Where it stands now
The International Working Group on Women and Sport has partnered with Women Win since 2008 in sustaining this work, and NUK continues to monitor whether federation-level women's wings receive genuine budget authority.