UN Women Deputy Chief and Corporate Leaders Call for Systemic Investment in Women's Sport

At a Goals Lounge session during the UN General Assembly, the deputy head of UN Women drew on two decades of grassroots experience in rural Zimbabwe to argue that girls leave sport not because they lose interest but because systems fail them — and leaders from Standard Chartered, Liverpool Football Club, and the Women's Sports Foundation made the case that fixing those systems is not charity but sound business.

• UN Women's deputy chief details how safety, transport, care work, and stigma push girls out of sport and calls for systemic overhaul
• Standard Chartered and Liverpool FC showcase 17-year partnership and "one-team" model requiring sponsors to back both men's and women's teams
• Women's Sports Foundation cites $115 million invested since 1974, argues women's sport is a business opportunity
• Standard Chartered launches Formula One Academy to develop women in motorsport
• Panelists warn that investing only at the elite level will starve the grassroots pipeline that produces the next generation

Assistant Secretary-General Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women, opened with a deeply personal address that grounded the session's policy ambitions in lived experience.