On day two of the IAAF's congress in Paris, the newly re-elected president Lamine Diack launched the visionary plan designed to help the sport develop and grow beyond the centenary of the IAAF in 2012.
The announcement came after extensive research by the IAAF, over the past nine months, which quizzed member federations, athletes, their agents, the media and the sport's administrators across the globe.
Together the new strategy forms part of the 'Athletics World Plan' unveiled during today's congress.
Diack told the congress of the challenges that the sport now faced in the ever more competitive sporting environment and stated that his vision for the sport was 'to remain the number one sport for individuals in a changing world'.
In order to achieve this vision, the sport has now set itself a number of objectives, which include improving the quality and appeal of its events, providing everyone with the greatest opportunities to participate in the sport and making athletics, once again, the number one participatory sport in schools.
The IAAF is also determined to use training programmes to increase the levels of competence amongst the sports' administrators and officials and to improve access in all countries for people to utilise athletics facilities and equipment.
In addition to 'improving the quality and quantity of its media coverage and to work more closely with its commercial partners'.
Said Diack: "This is an important plan for the future of our sport.
"You have my word and my total commitment to work together with you in the coming years to ensure that athletics continues to seek out, nurture and develop new talent and, working together with our partners, continues to provide immense enjoyment for millions of people around the world through the implementation of this plan."
