Location and general information
Access to Sport - 
Gender Equality - 
Healthy lifestyle - 
Personal developmentContext
Girls and young women in the Pacific continue to face structural and social barriers, including limited access to safe and consistent sport opportunities, unequal participation in decision-making, and challenges related to health, education, and social inclusion. OFC’s This Is How We Football (TIHWF) programme is specifically designed to address these barriers by creating safe, consistent, and empowering football environments. Through targeted capacity building, pathway development, and community-based delivery, the programme ensures that girls and young women not only access football but feel supported to remain engaged, build confidence, and develop as leaders within their communities.
TIHWF drives sustainable change at individual, organisational, and community levels. Delivery is underpinned by strong regional messaging, nationally led implementation, training and education for coaches and facilitators, policy alignment, and embedded safeguarding and early prevention practices. This approach ensures that delivery is locally owned, culturally relevant, and socially impactful, while contributing to OFC’s long-term vision of an Equal Oceania, where women and girls can thrive both on and off the field.
Project goals
- Deliver an adolescent girls’ football programme that provides safe, inclusive spaces for girls to play, while embedding key messages of gender empowerment, life skills development, health education, and awareness of gender-based violence prevention and response.
- Train coaches, youth leaders, and Women’s Development Officers (WDOs) to be advocates for gender equality and broader social change, equipping them with the skills to challenge harmful gender norms and foster respectful relationships both on and off the field.
- Develop and implement safeguarding systems and procedures that ensure safety, inclusion, and gender sensitivity at all levels of football participation—from grassroots to elite pathways—creating a culture of zero tolerance towards violence and discrimination.
- Strengthen community partnerships and referral pathways by working with local service providers to ensure participants and their families have access to support services related to health, wellbeing, and violence prevention.
Project content
- 1x in country Training workshops for program facilitators in each Member Association
- 2x 8-week TIHWF programme delivery in each Member Association
- 2x competition activations – OFC Women’s Champions League and OFC U-16 Women’s Championship
- Distribution of equipment to every Member Association for the delivery of the programme
- Distribution of player packs to every participant to support programme delivery and engagement
- Ambassadors in each Member Association to drive participation, engagement, facilitation opportunities and role modelling for participants
- Ongoing online promotion of the programme through OFC Social Media platforms
Partner
