“Football is a social institution in Africa”, says Françoise Grange Omokaro, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology. “Increasing numbers of girls love and play the game, but because it is considered ‘masculine’, they have to struggle to participate. This project will examine the engagement of girls in junior football teams as a real experience of citizenship, looking at how playing in a local club can be a political experience for girls, how it can be a means to confront the norms that structure society, and examining gender sensitivity to public policies regarding youth. Football players in Cameroon and Senegal will be active participants in the project, producing audiovisual data, participating in producing a documentary, and communicating findings to political actors and to their peers.”

Ms Grange Omokaro will co-manage the four-year study with Prof. Dominique Malatesta, main applicant (University of Applied Sciences and Arts, HES SO, Switzerland), in collaboration with Prof Fatou Diop (University Gaston Berger, Sénégal) and Dr Désiré Manirakiza (Catholic University of Central Africa, Cameroun). The project will be coordinated by Dr Béatrice Bertho and hosted at HES-SO Lausanne.

The r4d Programme, funded by the National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), aimsat solving global problems with a focus on least developed, low and middle income countries.