“Pour Elles”: Sport and Culture

The second largest country in Africa by land area, the Democratic Republic of the Congo had a total population of 100 million in 2022, 51% of whom are women. Yet according to the World Bank, the country ranked in 151st place out of 179 in the gender inequality index in 2021.

To address this issue, Expertise France is implementing the project “Pour Elles: Sport and Culture” which uses sport and culture as tools for reducing gender inequalities for the benefit of Congolese young people, especially women.

More specifically, the project aims to remove the barriers preventing access for girls to sport and cultural activities, raise awareness among the relevant actors and train them in how to fight against gender-based violence and stereotypes, and rehabilitate cultural educational institutions and sports facilities to ensure that they take the specific needs of girls into account.

The project “Pour Elles: Sport and Culture” is based on two main lines of action.

1- Renovate and refit local cultural educational institutions and sports facilities to receive girls and ensure that they can participate in activities

• Development of four local multi-sport fields and a rugby field

• Refurbishment and refitting of cultural spaces and institutions 

• Promotion of Congolese women artists   

2- Strengthen and assist actors in the ecosystem of the rehabilitated local fields and institutions for activities that encourage the participation of girls

• Mobilisation of the stakeholders involved in the new fields with the creation of a community management committee

• Skills development and capacity transfer for the actors and structures organising social and sport activities for young people: selection of 20 associations through calls for expressions of interest (sport, culture, child protection)

• Skills development and training for people working around the fields and in spaces devoted to sexual and reproductive health and the fight against gender-based violence, stereotypes and sexist discrimination

• Financial and technical support for sports federations for the definition and implementation of a feminisation strategy for their members and activities  

The project strategy is based on the objective of reducing gender inequalities and promoting access to sport and cultural activities for girls and women in Kinshasa.

Several complementary lines of action are being considered for this purpose: increase access to adapted and inclusive local facilities, support and increase the number of activities for girls and women, deploy awareness-raising activities and campaigns for all decision-makers connected with the participation of girls and women to dispel certain beliefs that hold back girls.

The project will address the following development challenges:

• Work on representations of gender roles and the assignments that affect access for girls to sport and cultural activities

• The fight against gender-based violence and assistance for victims of this violence in the sport and cultural sectors

• Assistance for girls and boys in gaining access to sexual and reproductive health services (counselling, menstrual hygiene, sexual and reproductive rights, prevention of early pregnancies)

• The creation of local sports and cultural facilities, accessible and safe for girls and boys from poor neighbourhoods. These facilities should cater to the specific needs of girls/women

• Build the self-esteem and leadership of women in the fields of culture and sport through support for training and vocational integration