Uganda Goal 5 Summit Kicks Off Latest Round of Gender Equality Programming

Soccer Without Borders hosted a successful “on the sidelines” portion of its Uganda Goal 5 Summit from Oct 17 - 23 at the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) Technical Centre in Njeru, Uganda.

The Uganda Goal 5 Summit, designed to increase participation of girls and women in football on the pitch, on the sidelines, and in organizations, was presented in partnership with the Premier League, the British Council Uganda, and FUFA, and with support from Laureus Sport for Good. The Goal 5 Summit name references UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: Advance Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls and its Accelerator framework was developed by Soccer Without Borders, Common Goal, and Women Win.

“The Uganda Goal 5 Summit has been our largest and most diverse Goal 5 project yet in the region,” said SWB Uganda Director Steve Davis. “With more flexible funding, we were able to leverage some amazing partnerships this year to make this a truly memorable and impactful project. Our coaching cohort is an incredibly diverse, talented and passionate group, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with them on and off the pitch going forward. Uganda needs more female role models in its football community. We believe that ‘If she can see, she can be it,’ and this group has the capacity and experience to fill this needed gap.”

Photos courtesy of Jules Mayele, SWB Uganda

The “on the sidelines” component of the Summit included 40 young female coaches, representing 19 football and football-for-food organizations coaching in 10 districts and five+ refugee communities. They participated in a week-long, residential Premier Skills Introduction to Community Coaching Course and learned best-practices for coaching girls and growing the game at the community level that they will now bring back to their own organizations.

Soccer Without Borders Uganda is proud that 50% of its participants identify as girls, despite just 3% of football players in the African Confederation identifying as female. The Summit continues in mid-November with the “in the organization” discussion week in Kampala, targeting Directors and coach supervisors with discussions on how we can better address gender in our work. Coaches will also have the opportunity to support girls “on the pitch” by writing Goal 5 proposals. SWB will fund 6-10 of these small projects for up to $500 each, both supporting the capacity of the women coaches to lead and reaching the youth in their organizations and communities.