National Anti-Doping Governance Observer (NADGO)
(The project was concluded in 2021)
From 2019 to 2021, the NADGO project developed a code of good governance and a tool to evaluate the performance of national anti-doping agencies.
Later, the tool was used to benchmark 11 national anti-doping agencies, and the findings were published in a concluding report from June 2021.
On 18-19 May 2021, the NADGO project concluded with an online symposium titled 'Governance in anti-doping: How to meet the challenges'. The sessions from the symposium are available for streaming.
Find out more about the project
'National Anti-Doping Governance Observer: Benchmarking Governance in National Anti-Doping Organisations' (NADGO) was a project that aimed to assist national anti-doping organisations (NADOs) in raising the quality of their governance and promote independent practices free from conflicts of interests.
It did so firstly, through a mapping of the current structures, practices, challenges and weaknesses of governance in the field of anti-doping and secondly, by developing a code of good governance and a practical benchmarking tool that can be used to evaluate NADOs' performance on good governance parameters.
Through the code of good governance, the project aimed to deliver specific assistance in addressing good governance deficits by showing best practice examples from crucial documents.
In the broader perspective, the project aimed to contribute to increased independence and credibility of NADOs, and it provided governments and partners such as WADA, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO a platform to discuss a possible harmonised approach or minimum requirements for organisational structures of NADOs.
The project employed a multi-stakeholder approach. Measures included:
- collection of athletes’ views on anti-doping governance issues
- analysis of current organisational structures of national anti-doping agencies and their governance practices
- identification and sharing of good practices and awareness-raising actions
- literature review
- questionnaires
- round tables, workshops and network building to increase the competencies of national anti-doping actors in good governance
The project was a partnership between Play the Game and a number of full partners and associated partners.
Full partners
KU Leuven
The German Sport University Cologne
The University of Warsaw
Associated partners
European Elite Athletes Association (EU Athletes)
Fair Sport
Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations (iNADO)
Anti Doping Denmark (ADD)
Sport Ireland – Anti-Doping Unit
National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA Germany)
Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA)
Slovak Anti-Doping Agency (SADA)
The NADGO project received a grant of around 200,000 euro from the Erasmus+ programme.
