La League; study and developmental support from Plan's Regional Office Americas SUMMARY 
Girls and young women in developing countries often face two substantial obstacles: teenage pregnancies and child marriages. The project La League Champions of Change (LL-CoC) empowers girls and young women to overcome these obstacles. The project, which has football (soccer) at its heart, is being implemented in Nicaragua (July 2017 – December 2019) and Brazil (January 2018 – July 2021). It pilots a model that takes girls’ football to a higher level; as a sport and a driver for girls’ empowerment. Football is used to transform gender norms and raise awareness on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The Regional Office Americas has supported this project by conducting a regional study on Child Marriage and by developing a methodology that actively involves fathers and male role models. This project is part of a broader pilot programme carried out in Nicaragua and the Netherlands, where Plan International is partnering with the Cruyff Foundation and Women Win. Every year, over 700 million women worldwide are married before they are 18 and about 16 million girls under 19 give birth. Becoming a wife and mother so young has far-reaching consequences. It causes early school dropout, increases the risk of exploitation, sexual and domestic violence and abuse, as well as death at childbirth. Holding girls back like this and endangering their lives negatively impacts a country’s overall development. In the largely male-oriented Latin America, girls often mistakenly believe that early marriage and pregnancy are their best escape from poverty and domestic violence. Plan, together with the Johan Cruyff Foundation (JCF) and Women Win (WW), are combining successful methods into an effective new model called La League - Champions of Change. It uses football to empower girls and make them more visible, and involves fathers and boys in supporting the freedom and equal rights of girls. It follows three pathways.

1: The social empowerment of girls 
By stimulating girls to play football, they will experience teamwork and become more confident. This together with the CoC methodology will empower them to seek access to quality SRHR information and services so they can take informed actions on their sexual health, thus avoiding teenage pregnancies and early marriage.

2: The involvement of males
To transform gender norms and raise awareness on SRHR, we are mobilising boys, fathers and other strong male role models to support girls, in football and in other important life choices. Plan's successful Champions of Change method will promote gender equality and this will be amplified by JCF’s ‘Heroes of the Cruyff Courts’. Community members will be actively encouraged to foster positive attitudes towards gender equality so they are committed to end child marriages and teenage pregnancies

3: The economic empowerment of girls
Based on WW’s Leadership and Economic Empowerment Pathway (LEEP) the project will boost girls’ economic empowerment by creating income-generating opportunities centred around football. They can, for example, become coaches or referees or perhaps obtain scholarships to become professional footballers. Football will thus help change gender roles and create awareness for the negative effects of teenage pregnancies and child marriages. And not just for girls, but for everyone. ,The regional component will give technical support to the implementation of La League Brasil and La League Nicaragua, focusing on the following three processes:

1. Regional research on Child, Early and Forced Marriage/Early Unions in sevel focal countries in Lating America (LAC).
The regional office will conduct the overal research process. In coordination with the lead external consultant, ROA will supervise the overall methodological processes with the country teams. ROA will review the findings of each participating country and the final regional research study. ROA will organize and carry out at regional level the research presentation findings and the printing process of the research.

2. Engaging fathers and girls empowerments (pathway 2)
Plan ROA and Plan Brazil will coordinate and lead the development of this module. ROA wil summon and coordinate a reference group ensuring the development of clear terms of reference and ensuring the alignment of the module contents to the overall La League model.

3. Support the development of La League Champions of Change
ROA will support and contribute to the development of the methodology and pme framework of the projet., in coordination with Plan International offices of the Netherlands, Nicaragua and Brazil. The ROA team will (1) support and participate in contents and methodological reviews, (2) review and participate in the results framework development and Ensure the adaptation of CoC m&e tools and guidance into the La League PME framewerk, and (3) as per countries action plans, ROA will give methodological support to the implementation of CoC as an integral part of the models, and ensures the fathers and girls empowerment module is correctly aligned and implemented.