NEW IOC-OECD GUIDELINES TO OFFER PRACTICAL RESOURCES TO HELP GAMES ORGANISERS DELIVER SUCCESSFUL EVENTS

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have launched new guidelines to help the organising committees of large-scale international events navigate and manage the complexity of hosting these projects and help mitigate risks.

The “Guidelines on the Effective Delivery of Infrastructure and Associated Services in the Context of the Olympic Games” cover selected dimensions of specific challenges for the organising committees, such as institutional set-up and organisational management, sustainability and legacy, stakeholder and citizen participation, and programme management. In addition, they include good practices from previous Games organisers and lessons learnt from the procurement for large infrastructure projects.

During the drafting process, important input was provided by the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) of Paris 2024, Milano Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 and the Organising Committee for the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026, all of which shared their experiences and best practices in this important field.

The guidelines come with an online toolkit which offers practical resources to support organisers in the effective delivery of major sports events. It includes a checklist to help sports event organisers identify areas to strengthen their delivery environment. This checklist can be applied to various contexts, from large infrastructure projects to international events, and would be useful to any organisation or committee tasked with delivering such projects.

The guidelines and the online toolkit (both also available in French) have been developed jointly by the IOC and OECD over the last three years, complementing previous significant work of IPACS in the area of reducing the risk of corruption relating to procurement of infrastructure and services in major sports events.

The IOC and OECD signed a memorandum of understanding in 2019, aimed at strengthening their collaboration on promoting ethics, integrity and good governance, as well as peace and sustainable development in sport. Within this framework, the two organisations collaborate closely as co-founding partners of IPACS.