La League; empowering girls and creating gender equality though football in Nicaragua SUMMARY 
Girls and young women in developing countries often face two substantial obstacles: teenage pregnancies and child marriages. La League Champions of Change (CoC), a project to empower girls and young women to overcome these obstacles, is being implemented in 10 rural communities in Chontales and Chinandega, Nicaragua, from July 2017 to August 2019. Football (soccer) is the heart of the project, stimulating girls (aged 12-20) to play the sport and help talented players become professional sporting heroes. Football is thus being used to transform gender norms and raise awareness on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

This project pilots a model that takes girls’ football to a higher level; as a sport and a driver for girls’ empowerment. To reinforce the change, Plan encourages fathers and boys to actively support girls. It is part of a broader pilot programme being carried out in Brazil and the Netherlands, and 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. Nicaragua has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Latin America, affecting one in every four girls between 15-19. Moreover, it has serious consequences. It impacts young women’s health and development opportunities, puts the responsibility for raising children on their shoulders and perpetuates gender and social inequality.

In Nicaragua the prevalence of early marriage increased from 45.9% in 2001 to 59.6% in 2011, with 39.9% of girls between 12 and 17 who were married very young now being mothers. In the Chinandega-West and Boaco – South Central regions of Nicaragua the rates of child marriages are significantly higher than the national average, at 70% and 59% respectively. 

At 35%, school dropout rates due to early marriage and motherhood are high. About 39% of married young mothers said they did not choose to have children so young, while 19% of girls under 18 did not consent to their first sexual experience. Over half of girls married at 14 are with men aged 21 or older, which leads to unequal relationships. 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. Plan has a strong track record in working on sensitive themes in Nicaragua and has worked extensively in the field of SRHR with young and vulnerable people. Plan Nederland is currently implementing the “Mi Plan de Vida” project in several of the communities where the La League project is being carried out. The La League project will build on the success of “Mi Plan de Vida”, which focuses on enabling young people to make safe, sensible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. La League will complement existing and previous Plan projects, thus making it possible to build on earlier successes, such as working with previously trained stakeholders and community structures. Plan is strongly embedded in the relevant communities and has powerful links with local government institutions, local stakeholders and community structures, including sport entities. In the course of empowering young women between the ages of 12 and 20 to prevent teenage pregnancies and child marriages, 300 girls will be trained as Champions of Change through football and an additional 40 girls will be economically empowered. Also, 150 boys will be trained as Champions of Change (12-20 years) and as ambassadors for gender equality and girls’ rights. Furthermore, 4,500 of these boys’ and girls’ peers will be reached through peer-to-peer events. The ultimate goal of La League is that through girls’ football adolescent girls in Nicaragua, together with their male peers, will be empowered to prevent teenage pregnancies and delay early marriages.
 
Traditional gender norms can be challenged through the use of sport. It will give girls a sense of belonging, and being part of a team will offer them an identity beyond mere domesticity, thus offering them protection. Furthermore, participating in a sport programme will increase their networks and hook them up to institutions, programmes and mentors to which they would otherwise not have access. Football is traditionally a male-dominated environment and therefore the perfect space in which to challenge gender norms.  

The planned activities include those listed below.
- A baseline study will be conducted into the incidence of teenage pregnancies and child marriages in the selected communities. This study will serve as input for the regional Latin American study conducted by Plan's regional office.
- La League - Champions of Change will be further developed, including the design and printing of didactic materials and the training of trainers.
- Start-up events will be organised with all stakeholders.
- The necessary coordination will take place with local governments to transform municipal sports grounds into safe spaces for girls’ football, based on the Cruyff Courts model.
- Girls will be given weekly football coaching, in which they will be trained to become Champions of Change. At the same time boys will also be trained to become Champions of Change.
- Two media trainings will be given for 20 youth reporters.
- Both the girls and the boys will organise small-scale peer-to-peer events to raise awareness about the harmful repercussions of child marriages and teenage pregnancies in their communities. These will reach at least 4,500 peers.
- A hundred and fifty fathers, brothers and other male figures will be involved in the girls’ football activities, through a special La League Champions of Change module designed for fathers.
- The fathers will organise 30 father-daughter events in support of girls’ football activities.
- Two local and one national La League tournaments will be organised. 
- La League campaign materials will be aligned with the tournaments, in order to reach a large generic audience (aiming for 8,000 people).
- A video documentary on the impact of girls’ football in Nicaragua will be produced.

The expected impact and results, for each of the three previously mentioned pathways, are described below.

Pathway 1
•	300 girls will be trained as Champions of Change through football
•	20 girls’ football teams will be established in 10 communities
•	150 boys will be trained as Champions of Change
•	10 girls and 10 boys will become youth reporters and cover the progress of La League
•	4,500 peers will be reached by the Champions of Change through peer-to-peer events  

Pathway 2
•	150 fathers/male role models will be actively involved in their daughters’/girls’ football activities and these males will support the girls in their SRHR decisions
•	30 father/daughter events and 2 local and 1 national La League tournaments will be organised, reaching at least 8,000 people in the region
•	300 community members will be stimulated to improve gender equality in their daily lives

Pathway 3
•	40 girls will go through leadership and entrepreneur training, and thus gain access to football-related jobs (such as coaching and refereeing)
•	4 talented girls will gain access to sports scholarships 1.	The empowerment of girls
All project interventions aim to strengthen girls’ and boys’ capacity as agents of change, thus driving change in their communities. Girls will acquire leadership skills that will be essential to ensuring the sustainability of the activities once the direct intervention period has ended. Reaching out to fathers male role models will help assure the  presence of an enabling environment. 

2.	Connecting with local stakeholders
During this pilot, Plan will connect with all stakeholders, from local up to national, and even international level. Including parents, schools, sports clubs and community leaders in our actions and reaching out to national football clubs, sports and education ministries. These  stakeholders will be invited to adopt the girls’ football teams and integrate the methodology into their own spaces. 
 
3.	Developing, systemising and scaling-up effective methodology
After this pilot project has ended it will be thoroughly evaluated with the aim to upscale this programme. This, so that this La League goes beyond the borders of the communities of this single project. Together with our partners, Plan aims to roll out girls’ football for gender equality globally. La League is therefore not only a method; it is also a movement for girls’ football worldwide that other NGOs, corporate partners, sports clubs and government agencies can join. Because then we can - together - empower as much girls and young women as possible through football.