Promoting Gender Equality
DISCOVER FOOTBALL – Project 2019/2020
Promoting Gender Equality through Women’s Empowerment in Football in North Lebanon and the WANA Region
In the last 20 years, many women’s football clubs have been founded in the WANA region (West Asia and North Africa), but the football players in many countries are still confronted with resistance and there is a lack of explicit promotion of women’s football from state actors and public institutions. As a result, the potential of women’s football to promote gender equality, especially the potential of grassroots football, cannot be used to its full extent.
The overall objective of our project Promoting Gender Equality through Women’s Empowerment in Football in North Lebanon and the MENA Region was to increase gender equality in North Lebanon and the WANA region by strengthening female football players and coaches as well as football structures for women. Our project aimed to bring the participating women in touch through their common passion. Almost everywhere in the world, football is a male domain and thus a mirror of the existing gender inequalities in society. In consequence, the right to play football is also a step towards a more active role of women in society and contributes to the image of women in the respective countries.
This project consisted of four phases:
1. Needs Assessment /Orientation Meeting in Berlin (November 2019): Strategy session with four football experts from Lebanon to exchange ideas and identify goals for the project.
Download expert’s bio’s & Programme
2. Conference in Berlin (January 2020): Footballers and experts from Lebanon and neighboring regions were invited to Berlin to a conference.
3. Online Survey (July 2020): We collected data about the situation of women in Leadership positions in football in Northern Lebanon to plan a Leadership Programme including the needs of the participants.
4. Female Leadership Programme (October 2020): Online workshop series with the possibility to attend a seminar in Tripoli, Lebanon
5. Action Days (November 2020): Each participant of the Leadership Programme “Promoting women in leading positions in football in North Lebanon” acted as a multiplier and created her own women’s football event!