GIRLS IN THE GAME
Investing in girls creates a ripple effect that carries through to her family, community, and her future. Girls who play sports improve academically, increase confidence and make healthier choices. Yet globally, less than 10% of the "world's game" are female.
Soccer has a powerful influence at an individual, community, and global level. Full participation in a soccer team gives girls an opportunity to understand their bodies as athletes, build their confidence and voice as leaders, and access a community of supportive peers and mentors.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
Toward Global Goal 5
10,000+
Girls served, most playing on their first-ever team
43%
Of annual core program participants are girls
51%
Of Soccer Without Borders Coaches are female
100%
high school graduation rate (girls) in our most recent year
50+
Countries represented by girls in core programs
250+
Female coaches trained by Soccer Without Borders
GLOBAL STRATEGIES
GOAL 5 ACCELERATORS
Global Goal 5 Accelerators take a whole-context approach to accelerating fellow Football for Good organizations' efforts toward gender equality through football. Each accelerator brings together a cohort of organizations regionally to build girls’ participation, advance pipelines and pathways for female coaches, elevate female leaders, and change perceptions in our communities.
EXCHANGES
Through the U.S. State Department's SportsUnited program, partnerships with U.S. Embassies, and other local initiatives, we connect female leaders and coaches across organizations and countries . We have led and participated in exchanges focuses on girls and women in South Africa, Pakistan, Nepal, Nicaragua, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt, Israel, the United States, and Vietnam.
GENDER EQUALITY
WORKING GROUP
Soccer Without Borders is collaborating with fellow sport for development organizations through the Common Goal Gender Equity Working Group. The group is working towards UN Sustainable Global Goal 5: Gender Equality.
USA Global Goal 5 Accelerator
The Global Goal 5 Accelerator advances gender equality on the pitch, on the sidelines, in organizations, and in the media. Created in partnership with Common Goal and Women Win, each accelerator brings together a cohort of sport-for-development organizations and coaches to build girls’ participation, advance pipelines and pathways for female coaches, elevate female leaders, and change perceptions in our communities. Together, these actions contribute toward the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 which is to "Advance Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls."
The USA Accelerator worked with coaches and program leaders at the "On the Pitch" level, with a focus on increasing girls' participation, engagement, and leadership and building safe program spaces for girls.
Gender Equality Collective Impact Award
Soccer Without Borders Uganda has been named one of four recipients of the Beyond Sport 2020 Sport for Gender Equality Collective Impact Award, presented by Comic Relief.
The organizations - all based in eastern and southern Africa - have been chosen to work together during the year to advance United Nations Global Goal 5: Gender Equality.
In addition to grant funding, Beyond Sport will provide SWB Uganda with “business support tools and strategic guidance to support their collective efforts to accelerate sustainable social change through sport.”