Camfed Founder Wins Global Prize for Girls’ Education Innovation in Africa

Ann Cotton’s work to support community-owned, integrated education programmes for girls and young women in rural Africa was today recognised with the WISE Prize for Education

“I am honoured to join education innovators like Vicky Colbert, Founder of Escuela Nueva in Colombia, Dr. Madhav Chavan, co-Founder of Pratham in India, and Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC in Bangladesh, as the fourth WISE Laureate,” says Ann Cotton.

Education Innovation Reaching the Most Marginalised Communities

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) was established to place innovation in education at the forefront of the global agenda. Since its inception, the WISE Prize has been awarded to individuals whose education programmes reach the most marginalised communities.

Ann Cotton received the prize in recognition of her work with Camfed, the non-profit organisation she founded in 1993 after a research trip to Zimbabwe revealed to her that the biggest obstacle to girls’ secondary education in rural Africa was poverty, not resistance by parents or communities.

“Poor parents share the universal desire to educate their children,” said Ann. “Camfed works to transform this desire into action, in partnership with these families. Together we work to dismantle the material as well as psychological barriers that keep girls from achieving their full potential.”

Camfed reverses the cycle of poverty and inequality by supporting girls through school, and empowering young women to become leaders of change. Camfed invests in girls and women in the poorest rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, where girls face acute disadvantage, and where their education has transformative potential.

An Integrated, Community-led Approach to Girls’ Education

Camfed’s programmes, which are implemented across 5,085 partner schools in 115 rural districts of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi, are owned and run by the communities. Camfed has an unrivalled infrastructure of partnerships, systems, community experts, and education activists. Most importantly, there has emerged the unique CAMA network of 24,436 educated young women, who are driving change by unlocking the huge potential of girls and young women through education and mentorship. Camfed is replacing an existing cycle of poverty and despair with a new cycle of prosperity and hope.

Supporting 1 Million Girls through Secondary School

I accept this prize on behalf of the million girls Camfed is committed to supporting through secondary education in the next five years – a million girls whose poverty has so far robbed them of confidence and agency, and who do not yet know what an amazing transformation awaits them,” says Ann Cotton. “Just imagine one million girls in Africa, all of whom are from a background of rural poverty; all of whom understand the anxiety and the frustrations of poverty. Just imagine them working in the education and health systems, in politics, in journalism, in law, in engineering, in science – just imagine the power of what they can do to transform our world.