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In a room filled with markers, sticky notes and brilliant ideas, people from around the world took on a challenging question: take a real issue facing women and girls in sport and work together to find a way forward.
This interactive workshop was part of the 2026 International Working Group (IWG) Global Summit on Women & Sport, held July 9–11 in Birmingham, UK. More than 900 people from around the world joined the three-day gathering to share ideas and explore how to build lasting progress for women and girls in sport.
This year’s theme, “Beyond the Breakthrough,” focused on what happens after a promising idea or moment of progress. How can people adapt that promise to different communities, sustain it over time and make sure it leads to meaningful change?
At IWG, four Olympism365 Innovation Hub members shared this approach during a session on “Community Innovation: Design, Adapt and Sustain Gender-Inclusive Solutions,” drawing on their work in Afghanistan, Somalia, India, and Brazil, respectively:
- Sana Mahmud, Global Programs Director at Free to Run, has spent nearly 15 years developing sport programs with women and young people in conflict-affected and under-resourced communities, including Afghanistan. Sana represents the Collective365 strand of the Olympism365 Hub.
- Marian Mohamed Hussein, Founder and Deputy Executive Director of Hawa Feminist Coalition, uses sport to create safe spaces where girls and young women in Somalia can build confidence, leadership and collective power. Mariam represents the Grassroots365 strand.
- Renaissan Dutta, a psychologist and researcher with India’s Tarapur Social Development Society, works to make sport and psychosocial support more inclusive for marginalized communities, including women and girls with intellectual disabilities. Renaissan represents the Enterprise365 strand.
- Gabriela Bianchi dos Santos founded the Amazon Women’s Sports Association after seeing how safety concerns, a lack of societal support and other barriers kept women from participating in sport in Brazil’s Amazon region. Gabriela also represents the Grassroots365 strand.
The Olympism365 Innovation Hub is a collaboration between the International Olympic Committee, Beyond Sport and Women Win. It supports initiatives using sport to address social challenges by providing funding, capacity building and opportunities to connect and learn from one another, with a focus on strengthening community-led solutions. As part of this work, it also contributes to advancing gender equality.
Each innovator shared a challenge they currently face – a lack of trained and representative coaches, funding and resource constraints, and societal barriers for women and girls in accessing play. The workshop then moved into the “Innovation Café,” a rotating small group “World Cafe” style exercise where Summit participants brought new perspectives to each challenge. They came up with possible responses, chose which idea they would support with limited resources and considered what might stand in its way.
The exercise encouraged big ideas, but it also asked participants to make difficult, practical decisions. Which solution could make the greatest difference? What would it take to put it into action? How might funding, culture, capacity or power affect its success?
Tarryn Horner, Senior Programs Manager at Beyond Sport, led the session with Charlotte Groppo, Head of Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the IOC and Fiona Cooper of Women Win.
The workshop gave participants a glimpse of the process Hub innovators use in their own communities: understanding a problem, trying something new, learning from it and making changes along the way. It also placed the knowledge of people doing this work every day at the heart of the conversation.
For us, innovation is not the what, it is the how. Our innovators have learned how to put innovation into practice every day. They work in some of the world’s most gender-unequal contexts, often with limited resources, yet through human-centered design, collaboration, experimentation and an extraordinary amount of perseverance and resilience, they continue to overcome barriers. They test, refine and adapt their approaches, ultimately creating lasting positive impact for women and girls in their communities through sport.
— Tarryn Horner, Senior Programs Manager, Beyond Sport
For Renaissan, the Summit offered a valuable platform to share her team’s work on supporting women with intellectual disabilities in India.
“It was a huge opportunity for me to represent our initiative on women with intellectual disabilities,” she reflected. “This summit was a powerful reminder of how consistent small steps by people around the world can be huge drivers of change.”
At the Hub booth, Summit delegates explored work from the wider portfolio of Hub innovators and chatted with NOVA, the Hub’s AI-powered companion designed to help people find useful resources, explore case studies and learn more about innovation in sport for development.
The Summit also offered an important reminder: a breakthrough may draw attention, but lasting progress depends on what follows. People need the time, support and freedom to test ideas, learn from one another and adjust their approach. And the communities most affected need to help shape that work from the beginning.
By bringing community innovators and global delegates into the same conversation, the workshop created space for both sides to listen, question and build together.
Invest in the Olympism365 Innovation Hub
Cultivate an ecosystem of innovators and social enterprises across the sport, social impact and tech sectors through the Olympism365 Hub. Launched with seed funding provided by the IOC, Beyond Sport and Women Win are seeking partners to drive further innovation.
If you are interested in investing in the Hub and our innovators, contact us at [email protected].
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