CAF and CONMEBOL to promote women's empowerment and sustainable development through football

CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), reaffirmed their commitment to promote gender equity and the empowerment of women and girls in the region by signing a Memorandum of Understanding to promote actions based on sport for development with the purpose of contributing, through football, to greater social inclusion and the empowerment of girls and women, as well as people with disabilities and those in situations of social exclusion.

Both entities will establish a general framework of collaboration to promote and position football as a means for social inclusion, through spaces for comprehensive training and capacity building, to promote the development of people exposed to situations of vulnerability and exclusion in the member countries of this confederation and CAF shareholder countries. 

To begin to materialise this purpose, CAF will support activities related to women's football in the U-14 and U-16 categories of the CONMEBOL Development League, as well as those initiatives that are aligned with the interests of the parties.

The signing of the Memorandum by CAF's Executive President, Sergio Díaz-Granados, and the President of CONMEBOL, Alejandro Domínguez, took place at the headquarters of South American football's governing body in Luque, Paraguay, in the presence of the Minister of Finance, Óscar Llamosas, at the end of the Under-14 and Under-16 finals of the Women's Development League of the Paraguayan Football Association, in which Club Olimpia was crowned champion in the Under-14 category and Club Sport Kuetuvy in the Under-16 category.

"CAF has set the goal of renewing and strengthening its focus on gender, inclusion and diversity to support shareholder partners in their efforts to achieve substantive equality, eliminating barriers that prevent the effective enjoyment of rights and equal opportunities for women, indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, people with disabilities, among others; and will continue to promote integration hand in hand with strategic allies such as CONMEBOL that allow us through women's football to have a greater reach in both purposes to improve the quality of life of the population," said CAF's Executive President, Sergio Diaz-Granados.

CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez said: "We want to provide greater opportunities, promote values and technical skills for girls and women in South American football. The Memorandum of Understanding we signed with CAF will allow us to work together to promote the inclusion of girls and women in football as a platform for social transformation and development in CONMEBOL member countries".

This agreement is part of the CAF Strategy for Gender Equality 2022-2026, which will be launched at a regional event next Tuesday, March 8, in the framework of the commemoration of International Women's Day and the Board of Directors and General and Extraordinary Shareholders' Meetings, in which the multilateral organisation will be strengthened to consolidate it as the strategic partner for economic reactivation and the green bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.