FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007

UNICEF and FIFA

Football is a game of anticipation. On the field, players are always contemplating how their next move will open up an opportunity to reach the goal.

Since 1999, the partnership between UNICEF and FIFA has functioned very much the same way. Anticipating the tremendous benefits football can have on the development of children, the two organizations have teamed up over the last eight years, using the world’s most popular sport to prevent children from being recruited as child soldiers, inform them about the dangers of HIV/AIDS through education and discussion, and promote education for girls, among many other objectives.

This year, the two have united once again for the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007, taking advantage of the sport’s global appeal to raise awareness about the importance of girls’ education. The goal of the campaign is to demonstrate how women footballers can serve as role models for girls, and how the game of football is one of the most powerful ways through which the world can receive messages of gender equality.

A natural match

UNICEF and FIFA have proven a natural match since the two became teammates. Over years, they have been active in ensuring every child’s right to a peaceful world, free from conflict, inequality and abuse.

Together, UNICEF and FIFA aimed to use the leverage of football and the prestige of the World Cup to mobilize youth around the world to support the global campaign known as ‘Say Yes for Children’, which was also the theme of their first World Cup partnership in Japan and Korea in 2002.

In 2003, FIFA and UNICEF reached out to young girls around the world for the Women’s World Cup under the theme, ‘Go Girls’. Like the effort this year, that campaign promoted the right to education for all girls worldwide.

And last year, the partners teamed up for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, launching a major initiative in the spirit of protecting children everywhere from war and violence.

Visit the UNICEF pages for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.