World Netball Supporters & Partners
Commonwealth Games Federation
The Commonwealth is an association of independent sovereign states spread over every continent and ocean. From Africa to Asia, the Pacific shores to the Caribbean, the Commonwealth’s two billion people make up 30% of the world’s population and are of many faiths, races, languages, cultures and traditions.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) is the organisation that is responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games, a multisport Games held every four years for athletes from the Commonwealth nations. During the 20th century Netball grew strongly through the schooling system of Commonwealth countries and the sport has been a part of the Commonwealth Games since 1998.
. As a means of improving society and the general well-being of the people of the Commonwealth, the CGF also encourages and assists education via sport development and physical recreation.
Underlying every decision made by the CGF are three core values:- Humanity, Equality, Destiny. These values help to inspire and unite millions of people and symbolise the broad mandate of the CGF within the Commonwealth.
The CGF has worked closely with World Netball since 2008 to grow and develop netball across the Africa Region. The CGF was keen to see the high-performance gap in netball nations close and thus give more credibility to international competitions. The partnership was significant in establishing the foundations for the first WN event in Africa – the netball World Youth Cup 2017 held in Botswana and the Netball World Cup 2023 held in South Africa.
Netball is a core Commonwealth Games Sport and made its debut at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2023
World Netball and the CGF continue to work closely together to advance opportunities in sport, particularly for women and girls across the Commonwealth. Most recently the Commonwealth Games Foundation supported the Wallace Group with netball HubSites in Zambia.
Peace and Sport/L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport
A neutral and apolitical international initiative based in the Principality of Monaco, Peace and Sport/ L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport puts sport and its values at the heart of local development projects conducted within communities in crisis around the world. Exercising its missions in post-conflict zones, areas of extreme poverty or lacking social cohesion, Peace and Sport makes sport a vehicle for tolerance, respect, sharing and citizenship at the service of sustainable peace.
Peace and Sport was founded by Olympic medallist, world champion Modern Pentathlete Joel Bouzou, the current President of the organisation. Placed under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, and supported by governments, world sport governing bodies, international organisations, major international private companies and international sports champions, Peace and Sport creates synergies between different stakeholders based activities including:
- The annual Peace and Sport International Forum
- An online community for peace and sport
- The Peace and Sport Awards, to reward individuals and initiatives contributing to peace
- Locally-based Projects; concrete actions in different regions of crisis in the world.
Today, Peace and Sport has operations in Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, Israel-Palestine, Timor Leste, Colombia and in Burundi.
In Burundi, World Netball and Peace and Sport joined together to introduce netball through a project, Netball for Peace. The project won a JAPPO Award in the Sports Humanitarian Category at the 2012 Africa International Sports Convention (CISA) for making a ‘significant contribution to peace and the promotion of sport in Africa’.
Netball was also one of the ten new sports featured in the third annual Friendship Games in Africa in July 2012. The Games, organised by Peace and Sport, are the centrepiece of an extensive peace-building programme that uses sport to encourage the process of national unity and ethnic reconciliation in the Great Lakes region.
World Netball continues to promote the work of Peace and Sport to its members and fans around the globe and supports the annual April 6 campaign – the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP)
World Netball Sponsors
Gilbert
World Netball Sponsors
Gilbert Netball
Gilbert Netball provides the official World Netball ball for all international netball events, including the Netball World Cup and Netball World Youth Cup, worldwide Regional Championships, and the FAST5 Netball World Series. This partnership was established in 2005.
Leaders in sports ball engineering for over 180 years, Gilbert brought their unrivalled experience to netball in the 1990s, and have gone on to produce the best-performing patented grip pattern available. Gilbert has perfected the use of new synthetic technologies – as seen with the World Netball Official Ball. The Gilbert ball is the choice of many of the world’s leading netball teams and tournaments, and most of the world’s leading netball nations use it exclusively.
Gilbert netball kit is also becoming the first choice for netballers at all levels. As well as World Netball officials, many national sides have chosen Gilbert team clothing and footwear.